Max Verstappen may have won last time out in Japan, but the Red Bull driver is expecting a much tougher go of it at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Why? Well, it all comes down to tyre degradation — Red Bull’s biggest pain in 2025.

Max Verstappen expecting ‘very severe’ tyre degradation

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

It wasn’t long ago that Red Bull Racing had mastered the tyre degradation game. Doing so required a multi-faceted approach that took into consideration car design, circuit characteristics, driving style, and strategy, and it gave the Milton-Keynes team a seemingly massive leg-up on the competition.

The RB21, though, is a much different story. In 2025, the drivers at Red Bull are tackling a much more unbalanced car — and a lack of balance between the front and the rear makes it more challenging to master the art of tyre deg.

In Japan, the low-deg conditions (Suzuka’s freshly repaved track, cool race day conditions, and a harder tyre selection from Pirelli) meant that Max Verstappen was able to secure his first victory of the season. Just don’t expect the same at Sakhir.

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During a press conference ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen was asked about expectations for tyre degradation this weekend.

“It will be more severe,” the reigning champion told media, including PlanetF1.com.

“I mean, the first stint in Australia, we got destroyed. Also with the overheating and deg in general, the same in China.

“I would say to a certain extent also in Suzuka, but you can’t pass, because Lando was closing up to me in the end of that first stint again, and I knew that was coming. I was just driving to my own pace. But I think because the track temperature dropped quite a bit on the day, that helped a bit.

“Here, yeah, it’s going to be hot. Of course, we drive in the night, so it will cool down a little bit, but still hot. Aggressive tarmac.

“On paper, from what we’ve seen so far this season, that’s not, let’s say, ideal for us compared to McLaren.

“But it’s up to us to try and find those improvements in the car or in the tyre behavior and just go from there.”

‘Not ideal’ may be an understatement considering the challenges the team has faced on the tyre deg front so far. Helmut Marko pinpointed tyre deg as “the main problem” facing the team, and incoming upgrades are likely to center around tackling that particular concern.

Read next: Our bold predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix