Max Verstappen shares “things are not really clicking at the moment” as he continues to struggle with Red Bull F1 car

The day after calling the Red Bull F1 car "the main issue," Max Verstappen was seen struggling during the practice sessions at the Suzuka Circuit on Friday. Frustrated by the challenges with the RB21 and how things didn't go as expected, Verstappen described the day as difficult, explaining that the car was "flexing a lot." Despite being a three-time consecutive winner of the Japanese Grand Prix , it remains uncertain whether he'll reach the podium at Suzuka for a fourth time.

Max Verstappen on his struggles with RB21Max Verstappen on his struggles with the RB21: Max Verstappen lost valuable time during Friday's practice session, which was disrupted by multiple red flags due to incidents such as grass catching fire, cars hitting gravel, and a crash involving Alpine rookie Jack Doohan.

“It was quite chaotic out there for everyone with the red flags, so like everyone else, we couldn’t complete all of the things that we wanted to do. Today has been quite difficult for me because I’ve been trying a lot of different things with the car but it seems like a lot of things are not really clicking at the moment, and it’s quite difficult just to put the lap down,” he said, as per Formula1.com.

“You need a lot of confidence and commitment around here, and at the moment, I don’t feel like I can use that, so we still have a bit of work to do,” he added.

Max Verstappen secured second place at the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, and finished fourth at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. He has already proven his dominance at Suzuka three times, but with ongoing issues, it’s unclear if he can add another victory to his tally at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Also Read: Max Verstappen breaks silence, says "the main issue is the car," and Yuki Tsunoda needs to "figure it out"

Four years on, and Yuki's still teaching Japanese to Max 🧑‍🏫#F1 || #JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/Q2eqS0QgPN

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 3, 2025

For the remainder of the season, Max Verstappen will be representing Red Bull alongside Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver is making his Red Bull debut on home soil. While the two haven’t shared much about the car’s issues, they’ve been spotted catching up in Japan. The official Red Bull X handle shared a few photos of the duo, captioning them with, “Four years on, and Yuki's still teaching Japanese to Max.”