Red Bull has admitted it made a blunder during the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix which prevented world champion Max Verstappen passing Charles Leclerc twice during the race.
On two occasions Verstappen pitted a lap ahead of Leclerc, hoping the extra lap on fresh tyres would allow him to pass Leclerc when the Ferrari driver pitted.
Both times Leclerc kept the lead, prompting an angry outburst from Verstappen on the radio.
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“That is two times I have taken it easy on the outlap and not been in front,” Verstappen fumed. “I am never, ever doing that again.”
Red Bull’s Helmut Marko confirmed after the race that the team had told the Dutchman not to use the full potential of the tyres on the outlap, in order to preserve them for the full stint.
“Max was actually told to hold back during his outlaps,” Marko told Motorsport.com.
“If he had driven at a normal pace, he would have been in front of Leclerc. And when you’re in front, it’s a completely different story.
“But our tyre degradation was incredibly higher than Ferrari and the power of the Ferrari engine was very impressive as well. But still, if Max had been in front of Leclerc, maybe the story would have been different.
“It was all about the strategy from us. So it was our mistake, not Max’s.”
Team boss Christian Horner was philosophical about the error, noting that it’s likely Leclerc would have been able to re-pass Versappen.
“I think we underestimated the undercut, but I think Ferrari had the pace today that had we got that track position, they would have made the overtake. We just didn’t quite have that pace today,” he said.
Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez ultimately retired from the race in the closing stages after both ran into fuel issues.
A problem with the fuel pump meant both cars suffered a failure where the last few litres in the tank were unusable.
Verstappen was forced out with three laps remaining, while Perez retired on the final lap.
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