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Max Verstappen didn’t mince words after a disappointing qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver, who will start Sunday’s race from sixth on the grid, told his team over the radio that the RB22 is “made of paper.” Later, he explained the remark in detail to the media.
The frustration boiled over after a messy final run in Q3. Team principal Laurent Mekies apologized over the radio, and Verstappen fired back with the paper analogy. He wasn’t talking about a one-off problem, but a recurring issue that has plagued the team for years.
“We sometimes have components on the car that either break or get stuck,” Verstappen said on Saturday, September 6, 2026. “I’ve had that feeling quite often throughout the season. Sometimes it happens in practice and you can fix it for the next day. Sometimes it happens during the race — like I had in Austria — and now it happened between FP3 and qualifying.”
The result, according to Verstappen, is a car that can’t handle bumps and kerbs properly. “Our car simply bounces a lot more then, and we definitely gave away a lot of lap time because of that,” he added.
Pressed by Autosport, Verstappen confirmed the problem is at the rear of the RB22. He declined to go into technical details, but stressed that certain components are “not good enough” to survive a full race weekend. “I know where it is myself, but I’m not the engineer who can then solve it,” he said. “I do have some ideas, but I’ve been dealing with this for years now.”
That last comment is particularly striking given that the technical regulations were completely overhauled for 2026. Every part of this year’s car is new. Yet Verstappen insists Red Bull has been fighting the same rear-end issue for multiple seasons. “The team listens to me and they are trying to solve it, but at the moment they’re just not succeeding,” he said. “Some weekends you suffer from it less because you drive over the kerbs less and have fewer hard impacts.”
The ongoing problem has forced Verstappen to change his approach. He admitted that he now takes fewer risks compared to previous seasons. “I’ve already had that a few times this year, yes, where I deliberately hold back a bit,” he said. “If you’re fighting for seventh place, you shouldn’t be driving like that either. If something then goes wrong…”
He drew a clear distinction between this issue and the earlier rotating rear wing failures, which posed a safety risk. “No, with that rear wing, if you suddenly lose aerodynamics somewhere, that is very dangerous,” Verstappen explained. “But this is simply lap time that you’re giving away. Now you’re still driving on the limit, but you can’t make optimal use of the potential because the car is bouncing all over the place.”
Social media quickly turned the radio message into a pun: “papier-Wache,” a play on papier-mâché and Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache. Verstappen laughed at the wordplay but said, “I’d better not use that joke myself!” He added, “It’s just a shame. Everyone is doing their best, and you can’t blame one person. It’s a very big team. It’s just a shame that a lot of things this season aren’t always right, or at least aren’t working properly.”
Verstappen made it clear that he is no longer surprised by Red Bull’s setbacks. “Almost every weekend something goes wrong,” he said. “I always want to get the best out of it, and if that doesn’t happen because something goes wrong all the time, then of course I get frustrated. But on the other hand, you’re not fighting for the championship anyway, so you have to try to put it into perspective.”
Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen predicted a tough day unless the team can fix the “car degradation.” “If they can fix it for tomorrow and the car feels a bit like it did in FP3, then I’ll try to go with that group at the front,” he said. “But if it feels like it does now, then I don’t have much confidence.”
Observers note that Red Bull has experienced an unusually high number of mechanical issues in 2026, from rear wing failures to brake problems. The persistent rear-end handling issue adds to a growing list of complaints from the reigning champion. While the team’s engineers work on a solution, Verstappen’s patience — and his car’s structural integrity — remain under scrutiny.
