The fourth race week has started at the Bahrain International Circuit. While McLarens were flying in the two free practice sessions on Friday and leaving a massive gap between them and the rest of the grid, Red Bull drivers ended the day with results open for fixing. After winning the Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen struggled with handling the car. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda also went through a difficult amid getting used to his new team. In an interview, both Red Bull Racing drivers expressed their unhappiness with the performance of the car.
Verstappen not happy with Red Bull’s performance
Max Verstappen had a difficult Friday free practice session in the opening track day at the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix. The Dutchman placed seventh on the timesheets with 1:31.330. After the session, he admitted that the low grip and tricky conditions made it difficult to control the car.
Though he mentioned that the balance of the car was not too bad, Red Bull will need to work on the car in the long run. Vestappen stated that the performance of the car was very slow every lap.
He acknowledged that the gap between McLaren and all other constructors was massive, which made the reigning World Champion not entirely happy.
“[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 missed FP1 and handed his car to Ayumu Iwasa, who placed 19th with 1:35.475. Despite Red Bull’s different approaches to the sessions, it became clear that, like the rest of the grid, Red Bull has a big gap between McLaren and has a long way to go for better and cleaner results.
“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.
“Yeah, it’s big. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big.”
Messy free practice sessions for Tsunoda
Max Verstappen’s new teammate Yuki Tsunoda experienced a harder session on Friday. Still adjusting to the team and the car in his second weekend with Red Bull, the Japanese driver ended the day even further down on the timesheets at 18th with 1:32.024. He was 9th in FP1 with 1:34.484. While reflecting that it was a messy practice in which he failed to put it all together, he acknowledged that he is still in the learning process. Tsunoda also touched upon the miscommunication issue he faced over his radio, which might also explain his poor performance.
“[It was] a bit of learning, I guess.
“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.”
Tsunoda is still optimistic
Although Tsunoda did not leave the free practices happy on Friday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, he expressed his hopes and optimism for the future ahead.
The Japanese driver stated that their current struggles with the car and their performance are not permanent, and cleaner operations are soon to be applied. He predicted that they will probably have better results rest of the weekend. Nevertheless, he suggested that reaching or going through Q3 will be difficult for them.
“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.
While he could not give a definite answer when he was asked about the potential of RB21, Tsunoda remarked that he is trying his best to understand how to extract the best from the car.
“Potential, it’s hard to tell, but like I said it’s a different set-up between us.
“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!”
