Red Bull capped off a difficult weekend in Bahrain with Max Verstappen finishing outside of the top five behind Ferrari, McLaren and George Russell.
In a big contrast to his victory in Japan, the four-time world champion dropped back in the Bahrain Grand Prix and was struggling to match the leaders.
Verstappen aired his concerns in FP3 when the team made an overnight change to his car, only for it to make his balance worse in the final practice session.
The Dutchman then encountered brake problems in qualifying, which almost saw him exit early in Q1 along with teammate Yuki Tsunoda who had a lap deleted for track limits. In the race he finished in P6, having overtaken Pierre Gasly on the final lap of the race.
After their calamitous Bahrain GP weekend, senior management within Red Bull were seen having a meeting in the F1 paddock according to journalist Thomas Maher.
Red Bull having ‘intensive meeting’ after Max Verstappen complaints in Bahrain GP
Verstappen struggled to make any progress in the race, complaining that he had no grip over team radio multiple times.
The team also had a problem with their traffic light system in the pits, which delayed his first pit stop, then on his second pit stop the front right tyre was slow to come off.
Verstappen made his thoughts clear on the team radio after the race: “A lot of things went wrong in that race, on my side, but yeah, it doesn’t help.”
According to Maher, senior management from Red Bull including Christian Horner and Helmut Marko were seen in discussion.
“Intensive meeting going on down at Red Bull, with Horner joined by Waché, Monaghan, and Marko,” wrote Maher.
Yuki Tsunoda scores first points for Red Bull’s second car
Tsunoda scored the first points for the second Red Bull in Bahrain, having finished the race in P9 which was one position ahead of where he started in P10.
The Japanese driver did not score points on his debut with Red Bull in Suzuka, then Liam Lawson also failed to score points in his short two-race tenure.
He appeared to be much closer to Verstappen despite the team having a difficult weekend, which is what Red Bull expected from Tsunoda.
There will likely be an inquest into how their race fell away from them, given they have won the last two Bahrain Grands Prix.
