Verstappen's "Red Bull car made out of paper" comment explained

After Friday practice and experiencing a ‘disconnect’ in the car balance, Max Verstappen already knew that Formula 1 qualifying at Monza would be difficult, and that proved to be the case a day later. The Red Bull driver set the sixth-fastest time on Saturday, almost three tenths behind surprise polesitter Pierre Gasly, but that does not tell the whole story.

When team principal Laurent Mekies came on the radio afterwards to apologise for the messy final run, Verstappen responded by saying that the RB22 is made out of paper.

Speaking to Dutch media in the paddock later, the four-time world champion explained exactly what was behind that comment: "We sometimes have components on the car that either break or get stuck. I’ve had that feeling quite often throughout the season.

"Sometimes it happens in practice and then you can still fix it for the next day. Sometimes it happens during the race, which is what I had in Austria, and now it happened between FP3 and qualifying.

"Then the car no longer takes the 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."

Asked by Autosport, Verstappen says the problem is at the rear of the RB22. Understandably, he does not want to go into detail, but stresses that certain components at the rear are ‘not good enough’ to get through a race weekend.

According to the Dutchman, certain components at the rear of the RB22 are currently ‘not good enough’

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

"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."

The latter comment is remarkable given that the technical regulations were completely overhauled for 2026 and essentially everything on this year’s car is new. Nevertheless, according to Verstappen, Red Bull has been struggling with the same issue for years.

"The team does listen to me and they are also trying to solve it, but at the moment they’re just not succeeding," Verstappen said. "Some weekends you suffer from it less because you drive over the kerbs less and have fewer of those hard impacts.

"In Zandvoort I didn’t complete a lap, so you never know how it would have developed over the rest of the race. But yeah, it happens very often."

Verstappen taking fewer risks due to 'car degradation'

It even means that Verstappen, by his own admission, takes fewer risks at certain moments compared to previous F1 seasons: "I’ve already had that a few times this season, yes, where I deliberately hold back a bit

"Of course, we’ve already had a lot of problems this season and if you’re fighting for seventh place, then you shouldn’t be driving like that either. If something then goes wrong…"

Although this is less of a safety issue than Red Bull's rear wing problems, Verstappen says he is not taking every risk in 2026

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Verstappen does stress that the problem in Monza, unlike his earlier crashes caused by the rotating rear wing, is not a safety issue.

"No. Look, with that rear wing, if you suddenly lose aerodynamics somewhere, then that is very dangerous. But this is simply lap time that you’re giving away," he explained.

"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."

After Verstappen’s radio message about the RB22 being made out of paper, it was quickly turned into a 'papier-Wache' pun on social media, a play on 'paper-mache' and Red Bull's technical director Pierre Wache.

Verstappen can laugh at the wordplay, but adds: "Yeah, I’d better not use that joke myself!"

"But anyway, it’s just a shame. I know everyone is doing their best and you can’t blame one person either, because ultimately 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 also predicts a difficult race on Sunday, at least if Red Bull is unable to resolve the "car degradation"

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

Verstappen no longer even surprised by Red Bull’s many setbacks

Verstappen has previously said that something seems to go against Red Bull every race weekend. On Saturday, it was not only the car degradation, but also the slipstream plan that fell apart.

Liam Lawson failed to make Q3 after being held up at the first chicane for Oscar Piastri, who consequently has to drop three places on the grid.

"I'm not even surprised by it anymore. Almost every weekend something goes wrong throughout the season," Verstappen 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 still get frustrated.

"But on the other hand, you’re not fighting for the championship anyway, so you just have to try to put it into perspective a little."

Verstappen can only fight for an occasional podium finish or race win this year, although even that will be difficult in Monza. Asked what should normally be possible in terms of race pace, Verstappen concludes: "I don’t know, it really depends on how the car feels tomorrow with this issue.

"If they can fix it for tomorrow and if the car feels a bit like it did in third practice, then of course I’ll try to go with that group at the front. But if it feels like it does now, then I don’t have much confidence."