Max Verstappen has played down expectations of a second win in a week for Red Bull at the F1 Bahrain GP.
Following his stunning performance in Suzuka, expectations were high on Max Verstappen and Red Bull coming into Bahrain. However, a difficult Friday for the reigning champion and the team demonstrated the RB21’s handling issues. Sliding and reporting brake issues in both practice sessions, Verstappen visibly struggled for pace, ending FP2 over 0.700s behind Oscar Piastri’s McLaren.
Speaking to the media after FP2, Verstappen said he was unhappy with the car going into the rest of the weekend.
“[It] took like one lap, two laps to get into it, but still the gap was quite massive, so [I’m] not entirely happy. [I was] just struggling a lot with grip, feeling in general. The balance wasn’t too bad but just, yeah, off, and quite a bit of work to do also in the long run.
“We’re just too slow basically every lap, and it was honestly not a lot of fun out there in the long run. A bit of drift practice at the end there as well!”
Verstappen also explained the team’s run plan in FP2,that saw him use soft tyres. He missed FP1 as rookie Ayumu Iwasa replaced him: “It’s just how we planned the run, from FP1 with Ayumu in the car and then me in FP2, just to see how they would hold up.”
The reigning champion stated the gap to McLaren was omnious going into qualifying: “Yeah, it’s big. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big.”
Struggles continue for Yuki Tsunoda at Bahrain GP
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also struggled as he pushed to score points in his second race for Red Bull.
“[It was] a bit of learning, I guess,” Tsunoda said. “It’s a bit [of a] different set-up across the cars to kind of see [what] the performance looks like. There’s a little bit of that as well, but also the session was pretty messy overall.
“I [wasn’t] able to put it all together, also there was a lot of miscommunication between our side of the garage in the radio for example. I think that’s part of the learning process, because it’s [the] fifth session from when I jumped in. But yeah, it was not obviously the finest session.”
“I hope it will be better. [It has] to be better than this.
“I’m sure we’re going to change a lot of things, and I mean for now it seems [like we’re] struggling, but at the same time I know a lot more will come from cleaner operations and everything. So I’m still feeling optimistic, but it will be hard for now to go through Q3.”
Tsunoda admitted he was still learning about the quirks of the RB21, when asked if the car could perform this weekend.
“Potential, it’s hard to tell, but like I said it’s a different set-up between us,” the 24-year-old said. “I know each time I’m feeling its potential, but it’s just hard to extract it, and I could have done much better with the places where the lap time comes, which would make it much smoother operations-side.
“Warm-up, switches and everything was pretty messy overall today. I just have to avoid it – this situation – in future, but yeah, maybe me and Woody [my race engineer] have to go out tonight and build a relationship more!”
