Max Verstappen on coming 6th at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Red Bull’s balance and tyre issues: ‘It’s the maximum that we could have done”

Max Verstappen’s Red Bull woes seem to be getting worse by the day. Amid struggles with tyre and balance issues, the 27-year-old managed to win the Japanese Grand Prix, but the issues returned to haunt him in Bahrain. The winner of last year’s Bahrain race finished seventh in qualifying and managed only one position better — sixth — in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Verstappen said that, for him, it was “the maximum” they could have achieved in such a situation.
Max Verstappen experienced longer-than-usual pit stops during Sunday’s race in Bahrain due to an issue with a light and then a jammed tyre. However, he played them down as minor. “When you have no balance and no tyre management, or worse tyre management than the others, then on this track it’s worse. The big problems here are the pace that we have. Basically tyre management and balance. Those are my main problems,” Verstappen told the media, including Motorsport Week.
Verstappen said it was both weird and complicated that the tyres were even worse than they were last year. “Of course, then people made improvements, but I feel like we actually had a worse weekend than last year. The pace was very bad, but of course I didn’t expect the race that I had, because basically everything went wrong that could go wrong. That probably made it a little bit worse,” he added.

Verstappen seems to be trying to get hold of himself after the Bahrain race, with eyes on the next one, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah from April 18–20. Sharing a picture of himself on Instagram, Verstappen assured his fans about holding the fort well. “Difficult weekend. Struggled with the balance and overall pace. We move forward and keep pushing @redbullracing,” he wrote in the caption.
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Verstappen’s efforts and talent have been visible on the track as he got the second spot on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix. In China, he got third spot on the podium in the F1 Sprint but ended up fourth in the main race. He finally clinched his first victory of the year in Japan and earned praise from even his rivals, including Fernando Alonso.