Max Verstappen could face a penalty and start the Brazilian Grand Prix from the pit lane on Sunday. The Red Bull driver had a horrible qualifying session and got knocked out in Q1 for the first time in four years, and so did teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Both drivers needed to improve their lap times in Q1 after their first runs, which weren’t good enough to get out of the bottom five. Tsunoda, who has been struggling to find pace in the RB21 since joining the team, couldn’t do so. However, it was Verstappen’s elimination that was a complete shocker.

The four-time F1 champion couldn’t improve his lap time and secured a lowly P16 starting position for the feature race on Sunday. With him already in such a bad position to start the race, Red Bull is considering making radical changes to the car setup after parc ferme, which would mean Max Verstappen would have to start the race from the pit lane.

Team advisor Helmut Marko spoke about the situation with ORF, saying (via RN365):

“We now have to see what we’re going to do with this situation. Whether we’re going to make drastic changes again, for example, that would mean starting from the pit lane. But for that, we need to sit down calmly and figure out what the best option is.”

Championship leader Lando Norris took pole position for the race with Andrea Kimi Antonelli alongside him on the front row. Charles Leclerc rounded up the Top 3, and championship contender Oscar Piastri, who crashed out in the Sprint race, secured P4, four-tenths slower than his McLaren teammate.

Even if Max Verstappen were to start the race from P16 without breaking parc ferme for setup changes or an engine change, it wouldn’t be unknown territory for him. The Red Bull driver started the 2024 Brazilian GP from P17 after taking a five-place grid penalty for an engine change after qualifying and went on to script a historic victory from that position.

Max Verstappen had to “under-drive” in qualifying after key setup changes backfired

Red Bull’s lack of pace surprised Max Verstappen during qualifying for the Brazilian GP. On Friday, he had already found the Sprint qualifying to be a disaster, labeling the RB21 a “pogo stick” that was “undrivable.”

The Dutchman shared that the team had made substantial setup changes to the car after the Sprint Race, where he finished in P5 after starting one position back. Unfortunately for them, the setup changes backfired, and Verstappen had to “under-drive” the car in qualifying to avoid losing grip and going off the track or crashing.

“It’s not what you want to see,” the 28-year-old said (via F1.com). “The whole weekend has already been quite tough, but this is a bit unexpected, I would say, after changing quite a bit on the car. It was just not responding. I had no grip out there, so I had to really massively under-drive it basically. It just didn’t work.”

Max Verstappen also addressed the possibility of making a power unit change under parc ferme, considering that there won’t be a world of difference between P16 and P20.

“Not necessarily, but we’ll look at all of that tonight,” he said.

This Q1 exit effectively removes Verstappen from the three-way championship battle unless he can recreate his 2024 magic on Sunday or the McLarens have freak DNFs.