Only one race into the new Formula 1 season, but Max Verstappen admits the loss of 18 “important points” at the Bahrain Grand Prix could impact his championship chances.
Red Bull had a disastrous end to the 2022 opener as both the Dutchman and teammate Sergio Perez retired in the closing laps due to a fuel pump problem.
Before then it had already been a difficult race for Verstappen managing brake temperatures and a steering issue believed to have been caused by damage caused during his final pit-stop.
“The big problem was what happened afterwards, which looked like there was no fuel coming to the engine and basically everything just turned off and I rolled back into the pit lane,” he said post-race explaining his eventual retirement.
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“It’s not what you want, especially after having really positive test days and also a positive weekend. It looked like with the little issues we had, to be in second place would have been a very good result – 18 points, probably, with Checo fourth.
“But to retire with both cars at the end of the race is very disappointing.”
And though this year is set to be the longest season with 23 races planned, Verstappen admits a no-score event this early could setback his championship hopes.
“You always say to yourself and to the team as well ‘we have to score points’, it doesn’t matter if it’s first or second in the first race,” said the Red Bull driver.
“You could see at Turn 1 at the start I didn’t risk too much, also when I was fighting with Charles [Leclerc] it was all clean and I was happy with a second place here.
Perfect race-craft, lap after lap ?
The new era is just getting started…#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/BEb9shBRI4
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 21, 2022
“But to lose so many points for the team is also very disappointing because, for the championship, where sometimes it can be really tight until the end, these are very important points.”
Having appeared the team to beat after testing and practice on Friday, Red Bull also accept they were second best to a revitalised Ferrari team in Bahrain.
“I think Ferrari were just that little bit quicker than us today. They have demonstrated over the winter [that] they have been very quick, they confirmed that today,” team boss Christian Horner commented.
“But we had a go at it. Max made the pass twice into Turn 1, couldn’t hold it off into Turn 4, but we gave it a shot and it’s frustrating to end up…again brutal for Sergio, last lap, he’d held off Lewis into Turn 1 and then, unfortunately, the issue and nothing he could do.
The moment podium slipped out of Checo’s reach ?#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/yB4sRPkzz6
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 21, 2022
“The negative is zero points, that’s the brutal start, the positive we’ve got a great car.
“We’ve got a car that has qualified on the front row, that has fought with Charles for the win. We didn’t quite have the pace to them.
“We have to get a bit more performance, we have to sort that reliability and Jeddah…totally different type of venue to here.”