Christian Horner has called on Red Bull to find a solution to the brake issue that hampered Max Verstappen in Bahrain “pretty quickly” with the next race, Saudi Arabia, just days away.

Verstappen cut a frustrated figure at the Bahrain weekend where the reigning World Champion’s pace was hampered by balance and brake issues, the situation not helped by two tardy pit stops.

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Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Having qualified down in seventh place, almost six-tenths slower than pole sitter Oscar Piastri, Verstappen complained about his “terrible” brakes.

Despite making changes to his brakes in parc ferme, Sunday’s Grand Prix turned out to be a race in which “everything went wrong” with Verstappen only able to make up a single position to cross the line in sixth place.

Falling to third behind the McLaren team-mates in the Drivers’ standings, Verstappen had a pragmatic – but somewhat dejected – response.

“It’s what it is,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I always try to do the best I can, even in disappointing or let’s say, frustrating situations. But you have to move on.

“We keep discussing, keep trying to improve. We know that we have our problems. Even if you win a race, that doesn’t go away.”

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Instead, in Bahrain at least, Red Bull’s problems were compounded by brake issues. And they are troubles that Horner says Red Bull need to resolve immediately.

“He’s not getting any bite or feel from the pedal and it is such an important tool that gives the driver so much feedback,” he explained in his post-race media debrief.

“Then on top of that, your entries end up compromised, you then taking too much speed in, it creates its own issues. So we need to get to the bottom of that pretty quickly.”

He revealed that Yuki Tsunoda, despite scoring points the second RB21’s first points of the championship with his P9 finish, experienced similar problems.

“The brake problems [for Tsunoda], I think probably to a lesser extent, but Max knows that there’s a chunk of time there to sort out,” he said. “Yuki hasn’t probably experienced that yet.”

Brakes though, are not the only issue with Red Bull’s RB21.

“We have a lot of problems,” Helmut Marko declared after the race. “The main problem is balance and grip, and out of this, I guess, the problems with the brakes came up.”

Horner acknowledged that while there have been moments that Red Bull have been able to minimise the problems by finding the optimal set-up, races like Bahrain exposed the RB21’s shortfalls.

“Ultimately, you can mask it a little through setup, and we’re able to achieve that last weekend in Suzuka,” said the team principal. “But I think this race has exposed some pitfalls, obviously, very clearly that we have that we need to get on top of, very quickly.

“And I think we understand where the issues are, it’s introducing the solutions that obviously takes a little more time.

Asked if they were experiencing ‘different problems’ to last year, he replied: “Completely different problem. I think the characteristics are perhaps similar, but certainly the braking issue we didn’t have last year.”

Added to all of that, Red Bull also need to expand the car’s operating window which Verstappen, Tsunoda and the Japanese driver’s predecessor Liam Lawson have all said is extremely narrow.

“That’s obviously what the team are very much focused on,” Horner said, “and over the next few races as updates are introduced, they are designed to hopefully address some of that.”

While Verstappen sits eight points behind Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings, Red Bull’s chances of securing the double are fading fast as they’re already 80 points down on McLaren after four race weekends.

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