The reason for Red Bull’s slow stops in Bahrain has been identified, following an intensive forensic investigation.

An electrical issue on Red Bull’s pit gantry resulted in the team’s slow stops during the Bahrain Grand Prix, which cost their drivers significant time loss in the race.

Red Bull’s electrical fault diagnosed after Bahrain Grand Prix

Both Red Bull drivers suffered slow stops during the race at the Bahrain International Circuit, which added to their driver’s race time – delays that contributed to the team’s struggles for pace and balance as Verstappen wasn’t able to get in the mix for the victory or the podium.

Verstappen’s first pit-stop during the Bahrain Grand Prix, swapping from softs to hards, was over four seconds as the Dutch driver waited for the signal to change to release him – a signal which didn’t come.

Moments later, Yuki Tsunoda suffered a similarly slow stop, with the yellow middle light flashing along with the red light for the Japanese driver, who flagged the issue over team radio.

A second stop for Verstappen on Lap 26 was even slower, with the Dutch driver stationary for 6.2 seconds as he also suffered a slightly sticky right-front wheel.

The problem has since been identified, with an electrical specialist within the team tracing the problem back to an issue within the pit gantry, halfway across the beam.

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The issue manifested itself by failing to register the four wheel guns as going ‘green’ to signal to the lights that the wheel nut had been tightened.

Usually, such an issue would keep the car up on the jacks without the car dropping to the ground, but the gremlins were such that the car was dropped to the ground despite the wheel guns not registering.

The issue required extensive investigations to identify, with the issue understood not to be related to the team’s procedures – the timing of the problem could have occurred at any point across pit stop practice, only for the issue to crop up during the race itself.

The delayed stops came on a weekend where Red Bull’s RB21 was off the pace, with Verstappen salvaging sixth place on the final lap of the race.

However, there is optimism in the team that this weekend could see a step forward for the RB21, with the Milton Keynes-based squad set to roll out updates described as making the car “significantly” different to what was raced in Bahrain.

The changes are understood to not be significant enough to be declared on the FIA’s upgrades list, published on Fridays, with the changes mostly being made in areas not visible to the eye.

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