11/04/2025 13:00
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has stated the RB21 car is "too slow"
in Bahrain as it struggled with overheating tyres during the
opening day of practice. Max Verstappen ended the second practice
session as the fastest Red Bull driver, but could only muster
seventh place. The Dutchman's lap time was eight-tenths of a second
down on session leader Oscar Piastri as McLaren set an imposing
deficit over the rest of the competition. Explaining Red Bull's
struggles around the Bahrain International Circuit, Marko detailed
the team is struggling in the hot conditions. "We are too slow and
the tyres are becoming far too hot," Marko told media including
RacingNews365 . When asked how much of the deficit is down to low
engine modes, Marko replied: "Not much." Verstappen's long-run pace
started off in the range of being competitive with the second
McLaren car of Lando Norris. However, as the tyres got hotter,
Verstappen's pace began to suffer as the Pirelli rubber could not
be brought back to a normal operating temperature. "The main
problem is the tyre temperature, which we can't keep under
control," Marko said. "And as soon as the temperature goes up, we
are sliding. "Sliding makes it even worse. Strange enough, at one
stage the tyre recovered, and we are doing the same lap times like
Lando, but that was only three or four laps out of 15." As Red Bull
enters the Bahrain round off the back of a victory in Japan, Marko
is hopeful it can perform successful set-up changes to get it back
into a competitive position. "If we would know [how to fix the
issues], we would change it," Marko said. "But we will change it
like we did in Japan, and hopefully we get this golden mixture of
setup changes and we are more competitive tomorrow."
