Max Verstappen slams ‘unacceptable’ Red Bull reliability after retirement at Australian Grand Prix

The world champion retired for a second time in three races in Melbourne

Max Verstappen suffered a fuel-related failure, according to Christian Horner. (Getty Images)

A frustrated Max Verstappen bemoaned Red Bull’s reliability problems after retiring for the second time in three F1 races, calling the situation ‘unacceptable’.

The world champion was running second in Sunday morning’s Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park before stopping his car abruptly at the beginning of a new lap. He said over team radio that could “smell some weird fluid”, before shutting of the engine and watching on as a marshal used a fire extinguisher on the smoking rear of his RB18.

Team principal Christian Horner said that the team will need to wait until next weak to decipher the cause of the failure, but believes that the problem was fuel rather than engine related.

The retirement meant that Verstappen failed to score any points for the second time in the opening three rounds of the 2022 campaign, and is now a whopping 46 poits behind championship leader Charles Leclerc, who led from start to finish to take a superb victory for Ferrari.

The 24-year-old Verstappen said afterwards that he was refusing to think about the championship as he and his team had to concentrate merely on finishing races at this point.

“We are already miles behind”, he told Sky Sports F1. “I don’t even want to think about the championship fight right now, it’s more important to finish races.

“Today was a very bad day again. It looked like an easy P2, I couldn’t fight Charles so didn’t put pressure on him, but we didn’t even finish the race. It’s unacceptable. If you want to fight for this title this kind of thing cannot happen.”

Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez finished second ahead of the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, but Red Bull’s reliability issues mean they are only third in the constructors’ standings, with Verstappen a lowly sixth in the drivers’ championship.

The RB18 has been roughly as fast as the Ferrari so far this season, though its race setup gave it less pace than the F1-75 around Albert Park on Sunday. For now though, the significantly more impressive reliability of the Scuderia’s machinery is making all the difference.