Max Verstappen still isn’t a fan of Bahrain’s ‘Outer Circuit’, citing “dangerous” issues with traffic during practice on Friday.
The Red Bull driver had some harsh comments about the 3.5km track on Thursday, and after trying it out for the first time in practice, those views had not changed.
“It’s not the most exciting to drive, to be honest,” Verstappen said via Crash.net. “Also because of the small track, the radio is constantly open. It’s like ‘be careful here, traffic there’, it’s not really what you want.
“Also in the second sector, it’s quite blind through a lot of corners, it’s quite dangerous around there to slow down. We have to cool down the tyres to be able to do another lap so it’s not nice or the easiest to drive but it is what it is.”
An incident involving Mick Schumacher and Roy Nissany in Formula 2, with the pair colliding on the approach to the final corner, highlighted the kind of issues F1 is expecting in qualifying on Saturday.
However, on a more positive note, fears the long straights would hurt Red Bull appear unfounded for now, as Verstappen was second quickest behind Mercedes stand-in George Russell in the second session.
But the Dutchman does feel both teams still have room to improve.
“I think balance-wise we still didn’t find the optimum setup, especially short runs,” he said. “It still seems like we’re lacking a bit. Long runs didn’t seem too bad but even there we can do better.
“I mean, OK, Valtteri’s lap got cancelled but we’re three and a half tenths off which is quite a bit. We need to find more, working towards quali and then again in the race.
“I think we also need to improve a bit more to be competitive.”