Max Verstappen says he is not used to Red Bull having such a strong start to a season after dominating the Bahrain Grand Prix, and has challenged his team to capitalize.
Red Bull enjoyed a comfortable one-two in Bahrain with Verstappen leading home teammate Sergio Perez and finishing over half a minute clear of Fernando Alonso in third. Both cars retired from the same race in 2022 and the victory marks Verstappen’s first ever season-opening win, something he says shows further improvement from Red Bull.
“It’s been a great start for us, for the whole team,” Verstappen said. “This is not something we are used to. We’re very happy at the moment. But we always keep working.
“It was a really good race. I think it w as important to have that first stint where I could open up the gap a little bit and after that I could look after my tires quite well. But obviously the car was working well, a bit like what we’ve seen in testing and what we’ve done throughout the weekend.
“You need to show that in a race; you never know what can happen throughout the race. We were on top of things. It was quite straightforward. I think also with all the calls and pit stops, we did a good job.
“In the long run, anyway, I have quite a different car. You never really are able to push to the limit, so naturally that was less of an issue anyway. I was already not happy in the beginning of the weekend. There are still a few things that need to be looked at. For now, we’re happy. Tomorrow once we get back home, we’ll get on top of everything before we get to Jeddah.”
