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SAT · 2026-03-28 · 13:10 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0328-40956
News/19-year-old Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes w/Verstappen calls his Red Bull ‘undriveable’ after more F1 wo…
NSR-2026-0328-40956News Report·EN·Conflict

Verstappen calls his Red Bull ‘undriveable’ after more F1 woes at Japan GP

Max Verstappen, the reigning F1 champion, struggled at the Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying 11th after calling his Red Bull car "undriveable." This continues a difficult start to his season, marked by complaints about the new regulations and handling issues. Verstappen, who has won the Suzuka race for the past four years, cited unpredictable oversteering and understeering as contributing factors.

By AFPAl JazeeraFiled 2026-03-28 · 13:10 GMTLean · CenterRead · 2 min
Verstappen calls his Red Bull ‘undriveable’ after more F1 woes at Japan GP
Al JazeeraFIG 01
Reading time
2min
Word count
343words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
11entities
Quality score
100%
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Briefing Summary

AI-generated
NEWSAR · AI

Max Verstappen, the reigning F1 champion, struggled at the Japanese Grand Prix, qualifying 11th after calling his Red Bull car "undriveable." This continues a difficult start to his season, marked by complaints about the new regulations and handling issues. Verstappen, who has won the Suzuka race for the past four years, cited unpredictable oversteering and understeering as contributing factors. Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli secured pole position, leading a Mercedes 1-2 with teammate George Russell. Mercedes has achieved one-two finishes in both races this season. The Japanese Grand Prix is taking place at Suzuka Circuit.

Confidence 0.90Sources 1Claims 5Entities 11
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Article analysis

Model · rule-based
Framing
Conflict
Human Interest
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.70 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
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Key claims

5 extracted
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Mercedes have claimed one-two finishes at both grands prix so far this season.

factual
Confidence
1.00
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Kimi Antonelli took pole position for the race ahead of George Russell.

factual
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1.00
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Verstappen crashed out in Q3 in the season opener in Australia.

factual
Confidence
1.00
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Verstappen labeled his Red Bull car “undriveable”.

quoteMax Verstappen
Confidence
1.00
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Max Verstappen qualified 11th for the Japanese Grand Prix.

factual
Confidence
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Full report

2 min read · 343 words
Kimi Antonelli and George Russell claim a Mercedes 1-2 at Suzuka but Max Verstappen’s Red Bull struggles continue.A despondent Max Verstappen labelled his Red Bull car “undriveable” after the four-time world champion qualified a lowly 11th for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.The Dutchman, who has won at Suzuka for the past four years, dropped out in Q2 in another qualifying nightmare to compound a difficult start to the season.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Iran footballers pay tribute to victims of school strike at start of warlist 2 of 4Iran bans sports teams from travelling to ‘hostile’ countries amid warlist 3 of 4Asian Champions League quarterfinal sends Iran’s Tractor FC to Saudi Arabialist 4 of 4World Cup security concerns grow in US as funding stallsend of listHe crashed out in Q3 in the season opener in Australia and has consistently railed against new Formula One regulations that see a 50-50 split between conventional and electrical power.“The car never turns mid-corner, but at the same time this weekend, it’s just oversteering a lot on entry. It’s really difficult, unpredictable,” Verstappen, who took pole last year with a track-record lap time, told Sky Sports F1.“We thought we’d fixed it a little bit in FP3 (third practice), I mean there was still a lot of understeer in the car, but now in qualifying for me it was again undriveable, so that’s something that we need to look at.”Verstappen, who finished sixth in Melbourne and retired from the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, added: “We have problems that I cannot explain in detail here.“I think in qualifying it just came back to a point where it became undriveable.”Verstappen, 28, was involved in a public confrontation on Thursday when he ejected a reporter from his news conference.Antonelli leads Mercedes 1-2 with Russell at SuzukaKimi Antonelli took pole position for the race ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.Mercedes have claimed one-two finishes at both grands prix so far in a flying start to the Formula One season and they were again dominant in dry conditions at Suzuka.
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Entities

11 identified
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Keywords & salience

10 terms
max verstappen
1.00
red bull
0.90
undriveable car
0.80
japanese grand prix
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formula one
0.70
mercedes
0.60
suzuka
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george russell
0.50
kimi antonelli
0.50
qualifying
0.40
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