Helmut Marko admits Red Bull struggles with tire overheating in Bahrain, lags behind McLaren. Friday was rather uneventful for Red Bull in Bahrain due to tire overheating.

Max Verstappen fails to shine
In the Bahrain Friday practice sessions, Red Bull was unable to maintain the performance shown in Japan and ended the day with Max Verstappen in seventh place and Yuki Tsunoda in eighteenth. The gap to the leading McLaren was quite significant, with Max Verstappen trailing by eight-tenths. The team hopes to turn things around, just as they did the previous Saturday in Suzuka, but it will be more difficult this time.

Helmut Marko explains
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko analyzed the issues faced by Max Verstappen: “We’re too slow, and the tires are overheating too much. The main problem is that we can’t keep the tire temperatures under control. When the temperature rises, we start sliding, and the sliding keeps increasing. One thing is quite strange: at some point, the tires recover, and we’re able to match Lando Norris’ times. Unfortunately, this only lasts for three laps out of 15.”

Marko then tried to motivate the team: “We don’t know the cause, otherwise, we would have solved it. We’ll turn things around like we did in Japan, and we hope to make the right setup changes to become competitive again.” On the gap to McLaren: “Unfortunately, it’s more than three-tenths, and it’s the same for long runs.”