Source:REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
[Saba Sports News] Red Bull has officially confirmed that Max Verstappen’s withdrawal from the Chinese Grand Prix was caused by a power-unit cooling failure. At the Shanghai round, Red Bull’s overall performance lagged noticeably behind rivals such as Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. Verstappen started eighth on the grid after qualifying — nearly a second off pole-sitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli — and clearly lacked pace.At the race start Verstappen again experienced power issues: insufficient battery energy left his launch weak and he dropped further down the order. He then struggled through the midfield, making several overtakes while trying to get into the points, but overall pace remained lacking. On lap 46 the team suddenly instructed him over the radio to pit and retire. Post-race inspections confirmed the fault was related to the energy-recovery system.Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said the team has addressed many weaknesses over the past weeks and expects to be more competitive at the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time, expressing confidence that the current problems can be rapidly improved with effort.
The editor believes Verstappen’s retirement highlights Red Bull’s technical adaptation challenges under the 2026 F1 regulations, particularly exposing systemic defects in hybrid-system software logic and thermal management.