Max Verstappen he released Fernando Alonso nearly 40 seconds at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Sergio Perez, 27 seconds. An abysmal difference which demonstrates the superiority of Red Bull at the start of the season. And things were saved.
As ‘Auto Motor und Sport’ reports, from the wall they asked their two drivers to reduce engine power after his second pit stop.
Verstappen’s radio could be heard during the broadcast. They asked him not to lower the times of 1’37’0, which ‘irritated’ him. “I don’t mind slowing down, but If we both slow down…”he said, referring to Pérez.
And on the wall they repeated the slogan, making it clear that he was not fighting against his teammate: “You are not in competition at the moment, Max. I’ll get tired of it, so please do.”
Now the The big question is why did Red Bull ask this of its drivers?: Is there a fear of the weakness of this engine or is it simply a question of guarding against the obvious superiority that they have shown to their rivals?
Helmut Markoadviser to the team, admitted after the race to have suffered complications: “We had problemsbut we were able to keep up the pace and regulate the temperature of the tyres.”
“The temperatures were very very high, if we had to drive at full speed we could have had problems…”, explained the adviser.
But despite these problems, if it is true that they suffered from them, the two Red Bulls were infinitely superior to the Aston Martin, Ferrari and Mercedes. No one can spit out the Austrian team… at least at the start of the year.