Red Bull 'all over the place' in Bahrain, admits Verstappen

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says that the team “have to look at themselves” when analysing their deficit to Ferrari and Mercedes – and slim gap to Haas - this weekend, and admitted that the team weren’t doing the best job possible.

Verstappen came in almost a second slower than Ferrari pole-sitter Charles Leclerc, and was just 0.005s faster than the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

His race was similarly disappointing, struggling to make much of a dent in the gap between himself and the four front-runners of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. His only improvement came from the misfortune of Vettel, who spun and lost a front wing, promoting him to fourth.

A further potential improvement in position, made by overtaking a wounded Leclerc, was taken away by the two Renault cars failing which prompted a safety car finish and ensured Leclerc would take his first podium.

Speaking to Crash.net, Verstappen said that it hadn’t been a good weekend, and that the team would have to reflect on their own performance rather than that of others.

He said: “Haas have done a good job for them, but we haven’t done the best from our side, So it’s quite normal that they are close, because I think in general the midfield is a bit closer to the top three.

“We just have to look at ourselves. For me it has been all over the place the whole weekend, in qualifying I was struggling with the rear.

“If you don’t have the balance yourself it’s always going to be a tricky one. If we can look at ourselves and say ‘okay we did the best job possible out of our car’ then you maybe are surprised, but at the moment I’m not surprised.”

Verstappen currently sits third in the Driver’s Championship behind both Mercedes drivers and a single point ahead of Leclerc.

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