Pole-sitter last time out at the Japanese GP, Max Verstappen could only manage seventh on the grid for the 2025 F1 Bahrain GP, after experiencing “very poor” grip levels in his Red Bull RB21 and struggling with the brakes throughout the qualifying hour.
After hustling his Red Bull to a surprise pole and win in Suzuka, it seems even Verstappen’s heroics aren’t enough to mask the team’s deficiencies at the Bahrain GP, as he struggled to seventh, nearly six tenths back from Oscar Piastri’s pole time.
Braking issues and failed set-up experiments
Speaking to print media after the session, the Dutchman explained he suffered from braking issues throughout the weekend – notably with a big lock-up in his first Q1 run, which meant he only had one lap to go through – and experimenting some radical set-up changes that didn’t deliver the expected gains:
“Yeah, just the whole weekend struggling a bit with that – brakes, feeling and stopping power. And besides that, just very, very poor grip.
“We tried a lot on the set-up and basically all of it didn’t work. You know, it didn’t give us a clear direction to work in. So, yeah, just overall a difficult weekend so far.
“Yeah, it happens,” he said when asked about his under-pressure final moments of Q1. “I mean, it’s of course not what you want, also to use an extra set.
“But with the [braking] problems that we had, you have to do that.”
Bahrain track “highlights” RB21’s issues
Whilst the result is very much below expectations, Verstappen believes the car itself isn’t much different compared to seven days ago in Japan, and instead pointed out that the abrasive tarmac in Sakhir has perhaps exposed some of Red Bull’s weaknesses more abruptly at the Bahrain GP than at the resurfaced Suzuka:
“I mean, in Japan it wasn’t good as well,” said Verstappen. “But here you just get punished a bit harder when you have bigger balance issues. Because the tarmac is so aggressive and the wind is also quite high. And the track has quite low grip, so everything is highlighted more.
“[The car] is sensitive in general, but here, of course, because of the tarmac and general grip, yeah, it’s more difficult.”
McLaren will “naturally” pull away on Sunday
When asked about the race prospects, Verstappen does not expect to fight for the win, as he believes the McLarens will “naturally” pull away, and instead will be aiming to beat the Ferraris and the Mercedes’s on Sunday’s Bahrain GP:
“I’ll try to do the best I can. I hope that I can stay a bit with the Mercedes and the Ferraris.
“Naturally, I think the McLarens will pull away. But yeah, we’ll try our best. We’ll see what happens.
“Well, you never know what can happen in a Grand Prix,” he said on whether it will be a dominant race day for McLaren. “But I think on pure pace, yes.”
