Ahead of the weekend, Max Verstappen had warned that the Bahrain Grand Prix could be one of the most challenging weekends for Red Bull. Although the characteristics of the Sakhir circuit don’t highlight the balancing issues seen at other tracks, the high temperatures and aggressive asphalt exposed another weakness of the RB21: tire management.
Paradoxically, it was exactly two years ago that Red Bull dominated here thanks to that same element that now challenges them: thermal tire management. Bahrain isn’t a track where tire “wear” is particularly an issue, but rather thermal degradation caused by high temperatures and rear-end sliding during the lap.
A vicious cycle that increases the operating temperatures on already very hot asphalt, which reached almost 40°C in FP2, putting Red Bull in trouble both on the single lap and during long runs.
Looking at the single-lap data, the gap begins to widen from Turn 8, when the car starts working intensely on the rear end and during traction, and then worsens in Turn 11, where Verstappen suffered from understeer. There’s also another issue: both Red Bull drivers struggled with braking, especially in the final corner, where many found it hard to match McLaren’s pace. In terms of race pace, the two MCL39s seemed out of reach for the competition, although long-run data was partially influenced by traffic, especially for Norris, who lost a few laps behind Oliver Bearman before being slowed by another car.
Interestingly, McLaren was one of the few top teams to try hard tires on long runs, while Red Bull focused almost exclusively on soft tires with Verstappen. In 2024, most teams completed the race with two soft and one hard stint, though it’s worth noting that the C2 compound—medium in Bahrain—has been made softer this year, bringing it closer in performance to the soft compound, making it a more interesting option for the race.
Beyond strategic considerations, Red Bull is behind, as expected, compared to its rivals — and it’s no surprise. It was hoped that data from the Bahrain tests would help, but remember that, at the end of February, Red Bull not only completed fewer laps than its competitors but also spent a lot of time on extreme setup tests and validating some updates, limiting the usual preparation work for the race weekend, which was conducted in previous years.
“We have a lot to do tonight, I think. McLaren looks very fast. With Mercedes and Ferrari, we seem a bit closer, but McLaren definitely has a big advantage over the rest of the group,” said Team Principal Christian Horner to Viaplay at the end of the day, giving a very clear picture of the situation in Bahrain.
“First of all, we need to understand how to improve what we have, which is mainly related to temperature, I believe.” Last weekend, Red Bull turned things around after a disastrous Friday by working on the setup and abandoning the simulator-prepared setup due to discrepancies between track and virtual data.
The hope is to make progress overnight again this weekend, but it won’t be easy: the difficulties seen in Suzuka were mainly about finding an effective balance that also provided more stability at the front end, on a track full of high-speed corners where, in theory, some characteristics of the RB21 should have emerged.
Here in Sakhir, however, the problem isn’t so much (or only) balance, but thermal management, an aspect that is much harder to get right. We saw this also in the first stint of the race in Australia, when Verstappen struggled with the intermediate tire degradation, falling behind McLaren.
“Today was difficult. Naturally, the gap is large. I’m not happy, I didn’t feel much grip. The balance wasn’t bad. There’s a bit of work to do because, in the long run, we’re too slow every lap. I didn’t have much fun out there. I think the gap is very big,” Verstappen said at the end of the day, pointing out that the root problem lies elsewhere, not in the balance.
“It’s impossible to repeat what we did last week in a single lap and then hold off the cars for an entire GP. This is a track where overtaking is relatively easy, so there’s a lot of work to do with the engineers tonight,” Horner added, highlighting how high degradation and a track layout that favors overtaking make Bahrain a completely different challenge.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko described a scenario very similar to what Horner outlined, adding that the difference seen today isn’t down to a power mapping gap. In fact, McLaren seemed slightly faster on the straights, which could suggest that Red Bull still has something up its sleeve — as often happens — but this is more relevant in comparison with Ferrari and Mercedes than with McLaren.
“We’re too slow and the tires are overheating. Basically, it’s confirming what Max said yesterday: Bahrain will be a difficult race for us. The main issue is the tire temperature, which we can’t control. And as soon as the temperature rises, we start sliding, worsening the situation.”
“Strangely, at one point, the tire recovered and we matched Lando’s times, but only for 3 or 4 laps out of 15. This track doesn’t suit us. Neither do the high temperatures. We hope we can find something more with a magical mix of setup changes to make us more competitive tomorrow,” – Helmut Marko concluded.
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