After the joy of the Suzuka pole and win double, Bahrain immediately reined in the Austrian team and Dutch champion. In last week’s GP, the RB21 was completely off-track, with Verstappen far from the podium fight.
The setback in Sakhir has realigned Red Bull with the other McLaren pursuers, who still seem untouchable. However, the team is starting to take action to bridge the gap. In Jeddah, the team brought the first updates of the season.
These are modifications not visible on the exterior of the car, but they are expected to allow Max Verstappen and even Yuki Tsunoda to begin closing the deficit. The next updates are planned between Miami and Imola.
Whether these updates are working or not is still unclear, as the Dutchman had two very different free practice sessions. In FP1, the 1997-born driver stopped in ninth place, ahead of his teammate and five-tenths off the session leader.
In FP2, however, he managed to climb up to third, just behind the McLarens and less than three-tenths off Norris. The trend between the two sessions seems positive. What’s certain, though, is that the team has “learned a lot” from the experiments conducted during the tests with the RB21.
“We tried different solutions with the car, maybe trying to find a direction,” explained Max Verstappen. “We learned a lot from this experience, but I’m still not where I’d like to be. I don’t focus on the gap, and in the end, you just have to follow your feelings.” – the four-time Formula 1 world champion added.
“The feelings I had in the car on the single lap were slightly better, but the long runs were still very challenging for us. McLaren will be very competitive, and for us, there’s still a lot of work to do and things to understand,” concluded the Dutch driver, who could attempt an attack in a weekend where the papayas seem a bit more reachable.
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