Red Bull rue 'brutal finish' with double retirement in Bahrain
Monday, 21 March 2022
The team still saw cause for optimism.
Christian Horner and Max Verstappen reflected on a "brutal" Bahrain Grand Prix – but one in which they saw cause for optimism.
Red Bull failed to earn a single point in the first race of the 2022 Formula 1® season after both defending champion Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez were forced to retire in the closing stages.
Verstappen had been on course for P2, while Perez was battling with Carlos Sainz to make the podium, with Ferrari instead claiming a one-two as Charles Leclerc triumphed.
Team principal Horner was still waiting to identify the exact nature of the mechanical failure that cost Red Bull, although he clarified it was unrelated to either a handling issue for Verstappen or a fire onboard Pierre Gasly's AlphaTauri.
"It was a brutal finish to that race for us," Horner told Sky Sports. "What looked like a decent haul of points suddenly evaporated in the last couple of laps.
"It looks like a similar issue on both cars. We don't know exactly what it is yet, whether it's a lift pump, whether it's a collector or something along those lines. We've got to get into it and find out exactly what's caused it."
That Red Bull were competing with pre-season pace-setters Ferrari until that point was a clear positive for Horner, however.
"Zero points for us is tough," he said. "The positives we can take is we've had a competitive car.
"We were fighting for the race win at different points of that race, and we've got to get on top of these issues quickly.
"It's a long season, 23 races, so we've got to get this behind us and get stuck into the next event."
Verstappen had been frustrated for much of his drive and was not happy with Red Bull's performance, even if he agreed there were signs they could still compete.
"It was not great today. We didn't really show what we could do, for whatever reason," he said. "There is potential, for sure, otherwise you are not up there.
"We've lost a lot of points again in one race weekend, so that's really not good. I know one retirement means it's not over, but I would prefer to have at least 18 points."
A tough result to take. We need to do a full investigation, but it looks like both Bulls suffered from a suspected fuel pump issue.#BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/TJiixJJbsO
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 20, 2022
