Max Verstappen has raised fresh concerns over a recurring rear-end problem on the Red Bull RB22 after the car began bouncing “like a kangaroo” during Italian Grand Prix qualifying at Monza. The four-time Formula 1 world champion says he knows where the problem lies and has been dealing with it for years, but Red Bull has still not managed to find a lasting solution.
The issue was particularly frustrating because Red Bull had made substantial progress with the RB22 before qualifying. Max Verstappen felt much happier with the car in FP3, only for a component problem between final practice and qualifying to compromise that improvement and make the car extremely difficult to control over bumps, kerbs and through Monza’s slower corners.
Max Verstappen frustrated by another Red Bull problem at Monza
“I’ve got less power than a Fiat Punto!” Max Verstappen complained over team radio during the Italian Grand Prix weekend. On its own, the remark would have been memorable enough, but it was ultimately overshadowed by what the Red Bull driver revealed after qualifying at Monza.
Max Verstappen set the sixth-fastest time in Q3, finishing 0.284 seconds behind surprise polesitter Pierre Gasly. He was subsequently promoted to fifth on the grid following Oscar Piastri’s penalty, although he will still start Sunday’s race from the third row.
What concerned Max Verstappen far more than the starting position was another problem at the rear of his car, an issue that appears to have become an almost chronic weakness. Its main consequence is severe bouncing, particularly through slower sections of the circuit.
“Sometimes we have components on the car that either break or get stuck. It’s a feeling I’ve had quite often throughout the season,” Max Verstappen explained. “Sometimes it happens during practice and then you can still fix the problem for the next day. Sometimes it happens during the race, like I had in Austria, and this time it happened between FP3 and qualifying.”
“This is at least one of my problems. As soon as I went out for qualifying, something on the car failed again, so it’s something we’re aware of and that happens more often during the year. The problem is that it costs us lap time in the low-speed corners, where the car just starts bouncing much more than it should, like a kangaroo, and you don’t have control of the car. You can’t be consistent with your driving like that. So yes, over the bumps and kerbs the car no longer absorbs them as it should, because I was actually very happy with the car.”
Verstappen says he knows where the RB22 problem is
Max Verstappen believes he knows where the problem is located, although he stressed that finding and implementing the technical solution is a job for Red Bull’s engineers.
The work completed by the team after the opening practice sessions had significantly improved the RB22. However, the subsequent failure effectively compromised those changes and made the car much harder to drive.
“I know where the problem is, but I’m not the engineer who can then solve it. I also have some ideas, but it’s something I’ve been dealing with for years now.”
That admission is particularly significant because the problem appears to pre-date the current RB22 rather than being restricted to one specific 2026 set-up or circuit.
“We made a big step forward, especially in FP3, because we improved quite a lot compared with yesterday. The car was in a much better operating window and, overall, I think it was in a much better window today as well. But when you no longer have control of the ride and the car keeps bouncing like a kangaroo, you can’t be consistent and, honestly, it’s a shame not to be able to optimise our performance.”
The wider difficulty fits with the RB22 weaknesses Max Verstappen has encountered during the 2026 season, when flashes of speed have repeatedly been undermined by problems that prevent him from extracting the car’s full potential.
Red Bull needs to change the troublesome component before the race
Max Verstappen made clear that resolving the issue before Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix is important if Red Bull wants to maximise its race performance.
“We need to be able to change whatever component is causing the problem, because otherwise it will be quite difficult to race in these conditions.”
The central frustration for Red Bull is that the issue that appeared on Max Verstappen’s RB22 at Monza is not new. The team has known about the problem for some time, yet has still been unable to eliminate it completely.
“The team listens to me and they’re also trying to solve it, but at the moment they’re not succeeding. On some weekends you suffer from it less because you ride the kerbs less and have fewer of those very hard impacts. At Zandvoort I didn’t even complete a lap, so you never know how the situation would have developed over the rest of the race. But yes, it happens very often.”
Verstappen admits recurring setbacks still make him angry
After another compromised qualifying session, Max Verstappen was direct about how accustomed he has become to setbacks during the 2026 Formula 1 season.
“I’m not even surprised by it anymore. Almost every weekend throughout the season something goes wrong. Obviously, I always want to get the maximum out of it and, if you can’t because something keeps happening, it’s natural that I still get angry. But, on the other hand, you’re not fighting for the championship anyway, so you simply have to try to put things into perspective a little.”
That final point underlines how different Red Bull’s position is compared with the seasons in which Max Verstappen was regularly fighting for the drivers’ title. His place in the current 2026 Formula 1 championship standings means the immediate priority is extracting the maximum from individual weekends rather than managing a title campaign.
For Monza, that will depend heavily on whether Red Bull can resolve the rear-end problem before the race. Max Verstappen believes the underlying potential is there after the progress made in FP3, but if the RB22 continues bouncing and losing ride control through the slower sections, converting that potential into a competitive Italian Grand Prix will be considerably more difficult.
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