F1: Red Bull received a slap in Baréin and the alarms lit

The triumph of Max Verstappen in Japan had overlapped the problems of RB21, but in Sakhir they abruptly came to light, with a performance that leaves the Dutch away from peeling through the crown.

After five races, the Red Bull team managed to finish its two cars in the point zone in the Baréin GP. The last time had been in Las Vegas 2024, with Czech Pérez. Since then, three pilots passed through Max Verstappen’s teammate: Mexican, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda. However, The shield of the energizing drinks received a furious thump in its passage through Sakhir and there was no reason to celebrate; On the contrary, the sixth place of the tetracampeón and the ninth of the Japanese only reaped long faces inside the Team.

After the classification of Baréin, Verstappen was clear when talking about his seventh place achieved: “I don’t fight for the title, I’m just competing.” The phrase rumbled strongly at the Formula 1. Paddock. The Dutch came from winning the Japan GP just six days earlier, then? “Everything that could go wrong, went wrong,” Max added in Sakhir. On the contrary, it had happened in Suzuka. The Japanese cold and a little abrasive asphalt was the balm for RB21. In Bahrien, with a floor that mistreated the tires and heat, Red Bull fell apart. A rear train without balance is eaten the covers of the first model of the Austrian team that had no participation of Adrian Newey. The situation is not new. In the second part of the 2024 season they began experiencing the inconvenience, but was overlapping in Verstappen’s talent and the advantage he had achieved in the first ten appointments to end up defending 1. However, in builders, they fell to third place.

For this year, we worked on a higher performance window in the RB21 with respect to its predecessor, the RB20, giving speed in the change. But there is no case. The course is not possible to reduch. Red Bull suffered a great bleeding of important personnel in recent times. In addition to Newey (he moved to Aston Martin), Rob Marshall also left (he was the director of Engineering and went to McLaren) and Jonathan Wheatley (left his position as a sports director to assume as director of Sauber). The Newey technical team does continue in Milton Keynes, with Pierre Waché as technical director, Enrico Balbo, Chief of Aerodynamics and Paul Monaghan, Chief of Engineering.

To the balance problems that the RB21 already brought, in Baréin an inconvenience with the brakes was added. The combo was already too much for Verstappen, who ended the race battling for sixth place against the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. As data to understand the loud performance fall of Red Bull, In 2024 the tetracampeón had enjoyed a comfortable triumph when crossing the goal with 22S457 advantage over Czech Pérez, who thus signed the 1-2 of the Team. This year was sixth, at 34S395 from Oscar Piastri, the winner, and after a security income in the middle of the race that brought the differences to zero.

“It’s very alarming. We know we are not competitive. There will have to be new pieces in the next races and hopefully that brings a solution,” said Helmut MarkoRed Bull sports advisor, after Baréin’s career in statements to Motorsport. While in McLaren the triumph of Piastri was celebrated, a crisis committee was organized in the Crime Committee among those in charge of Engineering, Marko and Christian Horner, the director. It was Horner who lowered a clear and fast line: the brake problem has to be solved for the Saudi Arabia GP this weekend. For the rest, they must wait. The team has a large update package for the Emilia-Romagna GP (May 18), but could be anticipated in the emergency.

Horner explained that the big problem is that the data they achieved at the Milton Keynes plant did not have correlation on the track, largely through the old wind tunnel they have. A new one is already being built, but it will not be operational until 2027. “The tools, mainly the wind tunnel, have taken us in a direction that does not replicate what we are seeing on the track. Then, you end with a mixture between what your tools tell you and what the data of the track say. Now, as we accumulate data on the tracks, they are the ones that drive the solutions. I think you have to understand where their weaknesses are marginal.

The engineers seek to be able to give the RB21 grip in the input phase and half curve to generate better curve speed, one of the historical points of the Red Bull models. “We are focused on expanding the operating window of the car and in the next races, as updates are introduced, we hope some of those problems are addressed,” said Horner. As for the brakes, it should be solved for Yeddah. “We have many problems. The main problem is balance and grip, and from there, I suppose, the problems with the brakes emerged,” Marko said.

In the middle of Toro the mess in which Red Bull is involved to recover competitiveness, another problem appears: Verstappen’s continuity. The Dutchman has a signed contract until 2028, but, as reported from Europe, there would be a clause in favor of the Dutch by which, if when arriving at the boreal summer break it is not among the first three of the table, it could execute its departure at the end of the year. From Aston Martin they would have made a juicy offer to have Max since 2026, the year in which new regulations will be released, cars and engines will be changed and the land is unknown to all.