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Max Verstappen believes that lapping half the field at the 2024 Bahrain GP is not an indicator of another dominant season by Red Bull in F1. Speaking in the post-race press conference, the Dutchman suggested that Red Bull’s performance was track and track conditions specific and that the scenario could change as the season progresses.
Lapping half the grid and finishing the race 22 seconds ahead of the second-placed Sergio Perez, Verstappen had a dominant display of superiority, as he clinched his first win of the season. His rival Ferrari had brake heating issues whereas Mercedes had cooling problems, one of the reasons for the gap.
While many would predict another dominant run for the Dutchman in the next race, he thinks otherwise. He feels the next race in Jeddah will have completely different track conditions and could lead to a different outcome.
Asked by Sportskeeda what kind of a season one could expect from him after a dominant victory in Bahrain, Max Verstappen replied:
“Well, I don't really think about that. I go race-by-race because there are so many different scenarios. And this is a very particular track as well. Probably one of our strongest anyway. So I don't want to think about these kind of things yet. I just want to now focus on what to improve from this race onwards. And then look at Jeddah, how we prepare there. But I'm not looking ahead too much.”
Asked how confident he was going into the next round in Saudi Arabia, he said:
“It's a completely different track layout, a lot more high-speed corners. The tarmac, of course, is completely different to what it is here, so less degradation. Naturally, probably that will help other teams as well compared to us. It seems like for us always it's better to have these kind of tracks, so I don't expect that to be easy.”
Max Verstappen believes Red Bull still lack in qualifying compared to their rivals
Max Verstappen feels Red Bull has a better race car than a qualifying car. Given the close qualifying where most of the grid was split over a second, the Dutchman felt that the weather and wind helped on race day. He claimed their rivals can extract more performance over a lap than them in qualifying.
Asked if their new concept was the reason they were better in the race than in qualifying, Max Verstappen said:
“Yeah, I do think that we are just not that great on one lap performance for whatever reason with the car. But luckily it's very good in the race for most tracks. Naturally, of course, you focus a little bit more on the race, but yeah, it just seems like other teams can maybe extract a little bit more over one lap than us for whatever reason."
"So that's what we'll look at for the coming races. But yeah, I really think that also just... The circumstances today with the wind helped us out a bit more compared to the last two days. So probably it was not in our favour with how the car is responding at the moment.”
In qualifying, Red Bull and Max Verstappen had no significant edge over rivals Ferrari or Mercedes. Christian Horner warned that with a long season ahead, it is likely that the grid could bunch up as teams develop their cars. Despite claiming the first victory of the season, qualifying is an area where it could get more competitive for Red Bull, and the Jeddah circuit could be one of the circuits that highlight the difference.
