Has Max Verstappen already ticked off the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship? “They are no longer opponents,” says Max Verstappen after the sobering qualifying in Bahrain about McLaren. Asked whether he is currently no longer fighting for the World Cup title, the Dutch gives a clear answer: “No.”
The qualifying defeat on Saturday in Sachir was too clear, too big the problems that the RB21 currently has. For Verstappen, the worst qualifying placement in dry since Monza last year is seventh. Not six tenths of a second mean that you had to let an alpine go ahead.
“We were bad on all conditions,” the world champion struggles all weekend with his car and with his balance. At Sky he becomes clear: “How I feel in the car you can’t say that on TV.”
The problems with the bulls had already indicated during training, but since one was actually not in the forefront this season, motorsport consulent Helmut Marko was still optimistic before the session that it could still be enough for the second start series. But it was far from that.
Braking problems prevent Verstappen
According to the Austrian, qualifying was “worse than expected because we changed a few things on the car that we thought they were an improvement.” Nothing seemed to help, so Verstappen continued to complain about problems with the grip and balance.
In addition, a braking problem seemed to be massively impaired. “It was a massive problem that could also be seen in the data,” says Marko. However, you don’t know where that came from at Red Bull. But: “I would say that it would have been third or fourth without the braking problems.”
Nevertheless, Marko also knows: “The brakes have nothing to do with the set-up.” Even without the braking difficulties, Verstappen did not feel comfortable in the car, and that poses a big mystery to the world champion.
Car behaves significantly differently than in Japan
Because a week ago in Japan, Verstappen won the pole on Saturday and used it on Sunday as the basis for the race. But there is not much left of that. “I still don’t understand why the car behaves so differently this weekend than in Japan,” he struggles.
But Japan was the only route on which Verstappen in RB21 felt really good, in all other races he had no chances of win under dry conditions. At least you were usually halfway up in qualifying and could always qualify at least in the start series – nor did that in Bahrain.
“We are generally simply bad for one round,” complains Verstappen. “It is positive that we have two cars in Q3. It is negative that we have to struggle at the pace. It’s nice to have two cars in there, but if you are too slow, it doesn’t work,” he says.
Goal for the race: just do my best
At Red Bull you hope that Verstappen can win a few places in the race on Sunday, even if the podium is likely to be “difficult”, as Helmut Marko notes.
There is only one motto for Verstappen himself: “I will do my best,” he says. “I hope that I can keep up with the Mercedes and Ferraris. I think the McLarens will naturally settle, but we do our best and see what happens.”
In terms of World Cup, it doesn’t look that bad for Verstappen despite all the problems. At the moment it is only one point behind World Cup leader Lando Norris, who also did not get out of sixth place in Bahrain’s qualifying.
Forecast half a second behind
Verstappen is currently not thinking of the championship, but the racing team is planning an extensive package for Imola. Until then, Red Bull has to cope with what you have and operate damage limitation. But whether it gets better afterwards and Red Bull mutates into a World Cup car, this will be shown.
“We definitely have to take a few steps, but that’s nothing new,” emphasizes the Dutch and believes that he had already announced this to his team in winter: there he predicted half a second behind, “and that’s how it came. So I was right there.”
“The problem is that it is not just a problem,” he adds. “There are many different things – it’s different on every route. It’s difficult at the moment.”
But that takes on Verstappen and emphasizes: “Life continues.” He just wants to make the best of the situation and knows: “You can scream and romp, but that doesn’t help either.”
He just hopes that the situation will soon change in his favor, “but I can hardly say when that is possible. We work on it. We do our best, we cannot do more.”
Yuki tsunoda creates Q3 feed
At least one thing is taking the team from qualifying in Sachir: Yuki Tsunoda made it into Q3 and thus fulfilled the minimum claim. “It was okay,” said Helmut Marko the performance of the Japanese. Despite a deletion of time by track limits, Tsunoda had remained calm and steadily improved. “That is what we expect from him,” says the Austrian.
Tsunoda herself takes ten as well: “Sure, as a driver you want more and more, but when you consider what I had in the training before – and also that it is only the second race – then I take it that way,” he says. “After all, I made it into Q3.”
It remains that the RB21 only has a very narrow window in which it works well, “and I’m still trying to try out many things to stay constant in this window,” said the Japanese. “It is quite normal that there are ups and downs. I just don’t want to rush it and make progress step by step.”