SAKHIR, BAHRAIN — Max Verstappen believes Red Bull should have been “more aggressive” during the Formula 1 season opener, admitting he “wasn’t happy” with the race strategy of his team.
The reigning world champion came into the Bahrain Grand Prix having qualified in P2, and stayed there for much of the race, but ultimately was forced to retire his car. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, sitting on pole, claimed the victory with relative ease, while Carlos Sainz made it a 1-2 for the Scuderia.
Verstappen had his moments on Sunday night - twice duelling with Leclerc after completely eliminating a four-second gap via an early pit stop - and was presented with a further late shot at success thanks to a safety car which bunched up the field.
However, the Dutchman was plagued by issues throughout the race, including tyre degradation, steering and battery problems. Teammate Sergio Perez also had a failure two laps after Verstappen did, meaning Red Bull went from what looked to be a 30-point haul to posting two DNFs.
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Reflecting on the late chaos in the Sakhir paddock, Verstappen said: “First of all, the pace itself was not what I hoped for, compared to Friday. Nevertheless, these things can happen - it’s the first weekend. Sometimes you might not get the balance you would like. But still, we were in second.
“Actually, we had a bit of a fight, even though strategy-wise we could’ve done a better job. We could’ve been a bit more aggressive on the outlap, to be ahead, and then you never know what can happen.
“We had good top speed, always. After that, I had a steering issue, a brake issue as well - they were overheating a lot when I wanted to attack. After the fighting I had with Charles, I had to let him go.
“After the steering issue, it was not easy to drive - you’re not having a feeling of what the car is doing. It was almost stuck in some places, so really difficult to drive. The big problem was afterwards, with no fuel coming to the engine, and basically everything turned off, so I rolled back into the pitlane.
“It’s not what you want, especially after having positive test days, also a positive weekend. It looked like, with the little issues we had, second place - which is still a very good result, 18 points. Checo in fourth, to have to retire both cars at the end is very disappointing.
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“The pace is there. We fought for a race win. That is not the big problem - we just need to understand the issues we had today and of course work on the car continuously to improve.
“It’s disappointing. You always say to yourself, ‘you have to score points, it doesn’t matter if it’s first or second in the first race’. You can see that at the start - I didn’t risk too much.
“Also, the fighting with Charles, it was all clean. I was happy with second here. To lose so many points for the team is disappointing. Sometimes it can be a little tight at the end, so these are very important.”
The “fighting” Verstappen mentions came after Red Bull attempted to undercut Ferrari on the first pit stop - and did so very successfully, seeing a four-second gap evaporate. It led to Verstappen, with sparks flying, chasing Leclerc down the pit straight and overtaking him at turn 1. However, the Ferrari man bit back on turn 4. Incredibly, the same set of events repeated themselves a lap later.
The 24-year-old continued on that battle: “It was alright. I didn’t have a good balance to attack. I had two attempts with the DRS. It was fun - I had a good battle with Charles. It was good fighting, Charles is a good racer. It was good fun out there.”
Here in a bustling paddock, with the celebrations of Lewis Hamilton fans within clear earshot, a visibly frustrated Verstappen concluded by reflecting on his radio communications during the race: “I’ve been angrier before. I don’t hold back. I say what I think in the car. I wasn’t happy with what we were doing, the balance of the car, the strategy. We have to analyse quite a few things.”
