Just a week ago, Red Bull Racing ended Friday practice in Japan without much hope for race day — only to go on and take pole position and a win with Max Verstappen. 

Friday in Bahrain is looking quite similar, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has warned fans not to expect a repeat race performance at Sakhir.

Max Verstappen’s ‘impossible’ challenge with Red Bull

With Max Verstappen just one World Championship point in arrears of McLaren leader Lando Norris, Red Bull are ever so close to regaining its grasp of the Drivers’ title once again — but Bahrain might serve as a set-back.

Thus far in 2025, one thing has become clear: The RB21 is not an easy car to drive. Between chronic issues with balance, temperature, and tyre degradation, pace is hard to come by, and Verstappen’s shock win in Japan was largely thanks to the fact that Suzuka’s resurfacing job and cool race day temperatures worked to the RB21’s advantage.

Looking at Friday practice in Japan, you may not have expected much from Red Bull on race day. And in Bahrain, that practice trend has continued.

McLaren paced the field in both practice sessions at Sakhir. Verstappen sat out FP1, handing his car over to junior driver Ayumu Iwasa. In FP2, he only managed the seventh-best time on the charts — slower even than Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls.

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Speaking to Viaplay after Free Practice 2, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted that Bahrain was shaping up to be far more difficult than Japan had been.

“We’ve got quite a bit to do tonight, I think,” Horner said.

“The McLarens look very, very quick. With Mercedes and Ferrari it all looks pretty close, but McLaren definitely look like they have a few tenths on the rest of the field.

“First of all, we’ve got to understand how we can improve what we have, which is mainly temperature related, I think.”

In practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, the Red Bull camp faced similar problems with temperature and tyre degradation, only for Verstappen to snatch a stunning pole position come Saturday afternoon.

Don’t expect a repeat of that performance in Bahrain.

“It is impossible to repeat what he did last week over a single lap and then holding the cars behind for an entire Grand Prix,” Horner claims.

“This is a track you can overtake at relatively easily, so a lot of work to do with the engineers tonight.”

For his own part, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko has come to a similar conclusion, telling PlanetF1.com that the car is “too slow” thanks to a tire anomaly.

If Red Bull want Verstappen to snatch the lead of the championship away from McLaren’s Lando Norris, well — this may not be the weekend to set expectations so high.

Read next: Our bold predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix