Max Verstappen sounds the alarm! After the first free practice sessions in Bahrain, it has become clear to the four-time world champion that McLaren is virtually untouchable. While the changing conditions in the past Grands Prix still offered opportunities for the competition, the papayas in Sakhir show that they definitively have the fastest car. Therefore, Verstappen joins Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc: “The gap to McLaren is very large.”
“The gap to McLaren is substantial,” Max Verstappen concluded after the first free practice sessions in Bahrain. “We approached our Friday slightly differently, so at this moment the difference is of course very large. But that being said, we simply had very little grip. It’s just difficult.” Verstappen only participated in the second free practice session; in FP1 he handed his Red Bull car over to junior Ayumu Iwasa. In the afternoon session, he recorded the seventh time, 0.8 seconds behind Oscar Piastri, the fastest driver of the day.
‘We are simply too slow’
“Of course, it took me a round or two to get comfortable in the car,” Verstappen added. “But still, the gap was quite large. So yes, I wasn’t entirely satisfied. I was simply struggling with the grip and the feel of the car. Overall, the balance wasn’t too bad, but we were somewhat off. In the long run, there is still a considerable amount of work to be done.” Charles Leclerc, despite Ferrari’s upgrade package, was also concerned about McLaren’s speed. Verstappen also expects that he will be too slow to compete with Lando Norris and Piastri.
“We are simply too slow, practically every round,” the Dutchman sighed. “Even during the long runs, there wasn’t much to it. Towards the end, I could even practice drifting a bit,” he referred to the limited grip of the RB21. Unlike most teams – McLaren aside – Max Verstappen primarily tested on the soft tires. “That was our plan,” he explained. “In the first free practice, with Ayumu in the car, we wanted to see how the red compound would behave.”
