Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko was unimpressed at seeing Max Verstappen struggle to sixth place in Bahrain, one week since his victory at Suzuka.
“We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again,” Marko told Viaplay, “and also standards, like, a pit stop has to work.“If the car is not the fastest and then the pit stops are not working, that is not acceptable.”
Verstappen and team mate Yuki Tsunoda both lost time at their first pit stops when the team’s exit control lights remained red after the crew completed the tyre changes. Then Verstappen lost further time at his second pit stop due to a slow front-right tyre change. Marko estimated the delay cost Verstappen “maybe two positions.”
“But we were just slow,” he continued. “We could not overtake Gasly, or only with the very last risk from Max. We could not overtake Ocon. But we will sort it out and I hope in the races in Europe that we are more competitive.”
Team principal Christian Horner explained the chief problems Red Bull faced in Bahrain. “We’ve been struggling with two issues this weekend, one a braking issue, and secondly an imbalance issue,” he said in a statement released by the team. “When you have these issues tyre degradation is also highlighted more.
“On top of that we’ve had just a horrible day where we had an issue in the pit gantry that caused a problem with the traffic light. The actual pit stops were actually quite good, but the electric issues definitely impacted our race.”
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With the next event just a week away, Horner said Red Bull hope to bring new parts to the car as soon as possible. “The team are very much focused on developing the car and hopefully over the next few races there are some updates that are introduced that address the issues raised,” he said.
“This race has exposed some pitfalls that we very clearly have that we need to get on top of quickly, we understand where the issues are, but introducing the solutions takes a bit longer.”
Although Horner felt “nothing went our way from the start of the race” in Bahrain, there was one upside: They scored points with both cars for the first time this season.
“For Max to come away with a P6 and to limit the deficit to Lando [Norris] this weekend despite the challenges we’ve had is the best we could have hoped for,” said Horner.
“Yuki has had a very solid weekend. Qualifying in the top 10, finishing in the points today, he drove pretty well here in Bahrain.”
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Yes (@come-on-kubica)
13th April 2025, 23:27
I mean the safety car did.
Jojo
14th April 2025, 1:07
The safety car worked out for Yuki, as he was able to get a cheap pit stop from it but Verstappen had already pitted with a full length stop, so it was bad timing for him. It meant that the undercut they were going for didn’t work when the others that hadn’t already pitted got cheap stops.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th April 2025, 12:22
In the end that SC actually worked pretty solidly for Max too – he got past a few cars he might have struggled with
Jojo
14th April 2025, 17:59
The few cars he got past were all due to pit again anyway, so he would have got past them even if the safety car hadn’t happened. He could have managed the undercut on some.of the other cars that only remained ahead due to the cheap pit stop under safety car.
It’s never a good thing for a safety car to come out after you’ve already pitted.
Sam
14th April 2025, 12:30
Agreed with BasCB, Max was able to gain a lot of positions.
That 6 seconds pit will be worse if it happened in safety car as well.
Jere (@jerejj)
14th April 2025, 6:25
All in all, a total mess of an event for them from which they can’t really get any worse anymore except basically for double-DNF & zero-score finishing scenarios.
Craig
14th April 2025, 8:04
Makes me wonder how they’ll react in an actual crisis if they’re getting this hysterical after 1 alright event.
reggie747
14th April 2025, 10:55
Hahahahaha Good words Craig and yeah, it’ll be interesting
I have an opinion
14th April 2025, 12:03
The team has put itself on notice. One more performance like this, and Red Bull Racing shall demote itself to Toro Rosso / Alpha Tauri / VCA Racing Bulls.
Craig
14th April 2025, 12:15
Christian Horner will be demoted with Peter Bayer taking his place
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
14th April 2025, 19:46
And the team formerly known as Racing Bulls / RB etc. shall once again be Minardi.
Stew
14th April 2025, 17:00
If Marko was one of the Seven Dwarves, he’d be Mr Grumpy, sadly they didn’t have a Mr Spouting the Obvious !