Already having their hands full with an unbalanced RB21 and brake issues, Helmut Marko says compounding the situation with botched pit stops was “not acceptable”.

Red Bull had a troubled weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit, scoring just 10 points as they fell further away from McLaren in the championship titles.

Helmut Marko on Red Bull RB21: We have a lot of problems

Although both Red Bull RB21s scored points for the first time this season, overall it wasn’t an easy weekend for the team with Max Verstappen’s pace in qualifying hampered by “terrible” brakes.

Qualifying down in seventh place, the reigning World Champion could only make up one position as balance issues, tyre wear, and two botched pit stops cost him pace and time.

Verstappen’s first pit stop was over four seconds as the drivers sat in the box waiting for the light to change to green after his mechanics had pulled away from his car. When it was clear that it was a glitch, he went. As for his second stop, that was a sticky wheel.

His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also had an issue with the pit stop lights when he made his first pit stop.

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It culminated in a trying race for the team, Verstappen P6 and 34 seconds down on race winner Oscar Piastri, with Tsunoda ninth, a further 10 seconds back.

The results led to an immediate and ‘intensive’ meeting taking place straight after the Grand Prix between Christian Horner, Pierre Wache, Paul Monaghan and Marko himself.

“Our car is simply not balanced,” Marko later explained to Sky Deutschland.

“I guess it’s mainly the aerodynamics. And if the car is not optimal, then two pit stops go wrong, then Max’s mood is lost. He’s right in the approach.”

“It’s a very difficult day for Red Bull, that’s obvious to all of us,” he added to the media at the Sakhir circuit.

“We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again and also standards like a pit stop have to work.

“The car is not the fastest and then the pit stops are not working. That is not acceptable.”

The 81-year-old confirmed Red Bull have upgrades in the pipeline as they search for solutions to the RB21’s limitations.

“[It is] very alarming,” he added. “We know that we are not competitive and there will be parts coming in the coming races and hopefully they bring improvement.

“We have a lot of problems. The main problem is balance and grip.

“And out of this, I guess the problems with the brakes came up. And then the normal procedure like a pit stop is not working, so one [issue] comes after the other.”

“With a performance like this,” he lamented, “the World Championship won’t happen.”

Verstappen believes P6 was the maximum he could have achieved on the day.

Asked by PlanetF1.com whether the pace issues or the operational errors are the bigger problems in his eyes, he said, “The big problem is the pace that we have, basically tyre management and balance. Those are my main problems.

“The pace was very bad. But I didn’t expect the race that I had, because, basically, everything went wrong what could go wrong.

“That probably made it a little bit worse. But I think the position where I finished is, at the end of the day, the maximum that we could have done.”

After four races, Verstappen is eight points off the pace set by Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings, while Red Bull are 80 points behind McLaren.

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