Verstappen: “Then Red Bull should have had a better car”

The Sakhir Grand Prix weekend is very different from the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, which was held last weekend, despite the unchanged location. First, the timetable is significantly different, making the sessions even later in the day for the Formula 1 drivers.

It ensures that the drivers’ sleep rhythms are somewhat disrupted. Go to bed late and sleep in, that’s the motto. In any case, you won’t hear Verstappen complaining. “I like that, I like it. It’s nice and relaxed. I think I’m just not on the sleep schedule of the race weekend in Singapore”, he refers to the evening race in Southeast Asia. “But it does feel good.”

Not only the timetable is different, the layout of the circuit is also completely different. Most of the driving is done at full throttle and the track is only 3,543 kilometers long. Verstappen therefore anticipates a chaotic qualifying. “Yeah, I think so,” he admits as he talks to, among others RacingNews365 are asked about the consequences of the changed layout.

“You can’t avoid it with such a short track, with so few kilometers of asphalt. It is always a matter of waiting, but I do think it will be busy,” said the Red Bull driver, who can understand for the custom layout. He doesn’t like racing twice on the same circuit.

“I understand that they want to do things differently, because the same thing twice as at Silverstone is also boring. Then you’ve seen that again. I get it, but I think the layout is quite short. and that people will complain because of all the traffic. Hopefully we will all be positively surprised and this weekend will be very exciting “, he concludes.

As a driver, it will not be a challenging layout of the circuit, right? Verstappen is not really concerned with that at the moment, he acknowledges. “I look at the performance, which is less for us on this layout on this track. That’s a shame for us, but then we should have had a better car with more power,” he laughs. “You can look at it that way too.”

Because earlier this year, for example, in Monza – a circuit where power plays a major role, just like next weekend – also not exactly smooth sailing for Red Bull. As bad as then in Italy, Verstappen does not hope it will be this weekend.

“I really hope not, but we will see. The track is different, because there are some corners where you can really make a difference. At Monza everyone opts for a set-up with very little downforce, which means that we the straights were short. Here the set-ups will be a bit different from each other. Let’s hope and pray that things are better here. “

With the cooperation of Dieter Rencken.

Romain Grosjean survived a horror crash at the Bahrain GP. Max Verstappen was not in the least impressed by Alexander Albon and is putting pressure on Red Bull. This and more in the RacingNews365 F1 podcast with Tom Coronel, Ruud Dimmers and host Thomas van Groningen, which can be heard below.

– .