At the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix a week ago, McLaren looked to have the dominant package during practice as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took turns topping the timing sheets over three practice sessions. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was warning that he lacked confidence in the team’s challenger at the Suzuka circuit. But when the dust settled and the checkered flag flew, it was Max Verstappen on the top step of the podium, as the Red Bull driver not only captured pole position during qualifying but took the win in Suzuka.
After the first two practice sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen is again sounding the alarm. Verstappen sat out the first practice session, as Red Bull handed over driving duties to reserve Ayumu Iwasa to satisfy one of four required rookie driving sessions on the season.
But Verstappen finished eighth on the timings sheets in FP2.
As for the McLaren duo, they again were up top, as Norris was tops in FP1 while Piastri nipped his teammate atop the table in FP2.
“[It] took like one lap, two laps to get into it, but still the gap was quite massive, so [I’m] not entirely happy,” Verstappen said to the official F1 channel after FP2. “[I was] just struggling a lot with grip, feeling in general. The balance wasn’t too bad but just, yeah, off, and quite a bit of work to do also in the long run.
“We’re just too slow basically every lap, and it was honestly not a lot of fun out there in the long run. A bit of drift practice at the end there as well!”
As for the gap to Norris and Piastri at the front of the field, Verstappen conceded that at the moment, the gap is “big.”
“Yeah, it’s big. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday, so I think this gap is very big,” added Verstappen.
On the other side of the garage Yuki Tsunoda, set for his second start with Red Bull after making his debut for the senior team at the Japanese Grand Prix, finished 9th in FP1, and 18th in FP2. Tsunoda also expressed some concern heading into Saturday.
“I hope it will be better. [It has] to be better than this,” said Tsunoda about qualifying on Saturday.
“I’m sure we’re going to change a lot of things, and I mean for now it seems [like we’re] struggling, but at the same time I know a lot more will come from cleaner operations and everything. So I’m still feeling optimistic, but it will be hard for now to go through Q3.”
Of course, this time a week ago Verstappen was raising the alarm about the RB21 in Japan, outlining how he lacked confidence in the team’s challenger.
We know how that weekend ended.
