On the second day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain, Red Bull has concerns over a water pressure issue that halted Lawson’s morning test session.
Despite a difficult run in the mid part of the 2024 season, Red Bull managed to hold onto the World Driver’s Championship, but missed out detrimentally on the Constructors. The Milton Keynes team looked to work on the problems in 2024, looking for the dominance they showed in 2023.
However, arriving at Bahrain, everything has not been smooth sailing for the team. On the first day, the car appeared to be unstable at times, struggling with wind sensitivity. Both Lawson and Verstappen found themselves running wide or in Lawson’s case, spinning.
Lawson’s struggles
Liam Lawson faced his own difficulties come the second day of testing, with the protective screens up and the car away in the garage for a huge portion of the morning session. Managing just 28 laps, the Kiwi found himself unable to continue.
Red Bull confirmed that this was due to a loss of engine water pressure which required detailed fixing. Then with added rain appearing in the early session, Lawson missed out almost entirely on a chance in the car for the first four hours.
Luckily for the Kiwi, Red Bull managed to get the car fixed up in the afternoon, recovering to complete a total of 91 laps across the day. He completed the second most number of laps from Day 2 and found himself in seventh on the timing sheets.
Although Lawson managed to recover the performance for the second half of the day, losing time in testing can throw off the data teams need and want to collect. With one day of testing left, Max Verstappen will be getting back behind the wheel in tomorrow’s session.
Verstappen remains positive
Verstappen holds out hope for the performance of the RB21 after his half a day testing on Wednesday. Getting out of the car, he praises the step forward the Milton Keynes team have taken since 2024.
He said, “The car was quite decent to drive, to be honest.”
“In terms of pace, it’s always difficult to say, but I enjoyed it. I guess that’s the most important part of it. It was a bit more predictable.”
Their biggest issue in 2024 was the low ride height, leading to an inability to ride kerbs effectively. This quickly placed them on the back foot in the development war that dominated the season. Speaking on the directions that the team have taken with the RB21, he said,
“It can’t be worse than last year, so I think the direction that we are working in is good, so we just need to follow that and see how much we can extract out of that. Everywhere, it’s just improved everywhere compared to last year. I don’t want to go too much in detail.”
It is often hard to grasp the realities of the progress during testing, waiting until the race to figure out the true pace of the teams. However, driver’s opinions on performance count for a lot with them knowing often after as early as five minutes, in the words of George Russell, the car’s potential.
Featured Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
