Two rounds, three standing starts, and Max Verstappen has not managed a single clean getaway in 2026. The details differ slightly from event to event, but the core problem is always the same: when the lights go out, the Red Bull has no power.
It is not a one-off. It is not bad luck. It is a recurring failure that has shaped Verstappen's opening weekends more than anything else about the RB22.
Australia
Verstappen's Australian Grand Prix was already compromised before the start. A rear lock-up in Q1 sent him into the barriers on his first flying lap, and he lined up 20th on the grid.
When the lights went out, the getaway was poor. Verstappen reported "no battery" over team radio. From the back of the field it was less visible than it might have been from a higher grid slot, and a strong recovery drive to sixth papered over the issue.
What made it more interesting was what happened to the other Red Bull. Isack Hadjar launched brilliantly from third, nearly took the lead, and then suddenly fell back as his battery drained mid-lap. He eventually retired.
Same power unit, opposite symptoms, same underlying problem.
At the time, it was easy to file this under first-race teething troubles. The 2026 start procedure is genuinely complex. Without the MGU-H, drivers have to spool the turbo manually, revving the engine for at least ten seconds before the start.
They also need to harvest enough energy on the formation lap to have battery available off the line. Multiple teams got caught out in Melbourne by a harvest limit rule that few had fully understood before race day.
So there were reasons to think it would be better in China.
China Sprint: P8 to P15
It was not better in China.
Verstappen qualified eighth for the sprint, already 1.7 seconds off George Russell's pole time. When the race started, he dropped to 15th on the opening lap. The car simply bogged down.
Afterwards, he compared the issue to what happened to Liam Lawson in Melbourne, where the Racing Bulls driver hit anti-stall and nearly caused a serious accident with Franco Colapinto arriving at full speed behind him.
Verstappen was blunt about the team's response, as reported by Motorsport.com.
– Honestly I didn't even ask. They said they would fix it. So I hope that that will be fixed for tomorrow.
He recovered to ninth. Outside the points. His first pointless sprint since the format was introduced in 2021.
China Grand Prix: same problem, worse outcome
For the grand prix, Verstappen again qualified eighth. With both McLarens failing to start, he was effectively sixth on the grid. A reasonable starting point.
By lap two, he was 11th.
On team radio, he identified the cause himself: the engine RPM dropped too low at the moment of launch.
Later in the race, he was also heard complaining about boost delivery, suggesting the power unit's battery deployment remained unreliable well beyond the start.
When asked about a third consecutive failed start, Verstappen did not dress it up.
– Here the two problems were the same. I just have no power. As soon as I release the clutch, the engine is not there.
He retired on lap 46 with a power unit failure. Eighth in the championship after two rounds.
What is actually going wrong
Some of this is the broader 2026 start problem that has affected the entire grid. The formation lap harvest limit caught out teams up and down the pit lane in Melbourne, leaving some drivers with near-empty batteries before the race even began.
George Russell explained that front-row drivers were particularly disadvantaged because of where the timing line sits relative to the grid.
Ferrari, whose smaller turbo design gives them a natural advantage off the line, have reportedly been blocking a rule change to remove the harvest limit. That political battle is ongoing.
But Verstappen's issue is more specific than that. This is not half the grid getting caught out by a regulation quirk. This is the same car failing in the same way three times running.
The turbo is not spooling properly, the battery is not deploying, and the result is a car that essentially stalls at the crucial moment.
The fact that Hadjar had the mirror-image problem in Melbourne, launching well and then losing all battery mid-lap, points to a power unit or software issue within Red Bull Powertrains rather than a driver error.
During pre-season testing in Bahrain, the Ford-branded power unit looked competitive. Whatever has gone wrong has emerged under race conditions, where the margins on energy management are tighter.
What comes next
Japan is in two weeks. Red Bull will have had time to dig into the data, and Verstappen has made it clear he expects the problem to be solved. But three for three is not a trend you can wave away with optimism.
In a season where Mercedes have won every race and sprint so far, Verstappen cannot afford to give up positions before the first braking zone. The car has other problems too: poor balance, high degradation, a lack of grip that made China a miserable weekend overall.
But none of that matters if you are fighting from the back of the pack before the first corner.
