Max Verstappen "expected more" from Red Bull

Verstappen in Saudi Arabia — Photo: © LAT Images

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

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Verstappen "expected more" from Red Bull

RB18 failed to match expectations even before team's double retirement

Sam Hall & Ian Parkes

Saturday 26 March 2022 09:15

Max Verstappen has conceded he "expected more" from Red Bull even before the team suffered a late double retirement in Bahrain.

With four laps remaining at the F1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull was on for a 30-point haul with Verstappen second and Sergio Perez fourth.

But the points slipped through their grasp as both cars suffered a failure with the fuel system and were forced to retire.

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Removing the reliability issues from the weekend, however, Verstappen was still left disappointed by the RB18.

Asked if the car at least matched his expectation, Versappen replied: “No, it didn’t.

"I expected more but we have our reasons for that and that is why we will try to do better here.

“[I was] not entirely happy but I was still in second which would have been a good amount of points.

“Of course, unfortunately, we couldn’t finish but we still learned a lot of things because we more or less completed the whole of the race so we had a lot of information from that and we will try to implement that here.

“Of course, the track is a bit different but it was a good understanding of the first proper race distance on the car.”

F1 following "a tiny bit better" in new era

A key target for the new generation of technical regulations was to improve the ability of the cars to follow, in turn hopefully producing more overtaking and better racing.

After engaging in a thrilling battle with Charles Leclerc in Bahrain, Verstappen felt the effects of the changes were "a tiny bit better".

He added: "But I don’t think Bahrain is the best example because of tyres overheating and once you are following for two laps, you just start sliding too much even if you can follow a little bit better.

“There will be some other tracks where the deg of the tyre is a bit lower and then, for sure, you will be able to follow for a bit longer.

“But it felt like it was a bit better and that is why we had a fight for two, three laps instead of only one.”