Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko was unimpressed at seeing Max Verstappen struggle to sixth place in Bahrain, one week since his victory at Suzuka.

“We have to get, as soon as possible, performance in the car again,” Marko told Viaplay, “and also standards, like, a pit stop has to work.

“If the car is not the fastest and then the pit stops are not working, that is not acceptable.”

Verstappen and team mate Yuki Tsunoda both lost time at their first pit stops when the team’s exit control lights remained red after the crew completed the tyre changes. Then Verstappen lost further time at his second pit stop due to a slow front-right tyre change. Marko estimated the delay cost Verstappen “maybe two positions.”

“But we were just slow,” he continued. “We could not overtake Gasly, or only with the very last risk from Max. We could not overtake Ocon. But we will sort it out and I hope in the races in Europe that we are more competitive.”

Team principal Christian Horner explained the chief problems Red Bull faced in Bahrain. “We’ve been struggling with two issues this weekend, one a braking issue, and secondly an imbalance issue,” he said in a statement released by the team. “When you have these issues tyre degradation is also highlighted more.

“On top of that we’ve had just a horrible day where we had an issue in the pit gantry that caused a problem with the traffic light. The actual pit stops were actually quite good, but the electric issues definitely impacted our race.”

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With the next event just a week away, Horner said Red Bull hope to bring new parts to the car as soon as possible. “The team are very much focused on developing the car and hopefully over the next few races there are some updates that are introduced that address the issues raised,” he said.

“This race has exposed some pitfalls that we very clearly have that we need to get on top of quickly, we understand where the issues are, but introducing the solutions takes a bit longer.”

Although Horner felt “nothing went our way from the start of the race” in Bahrain, there was one upside: They scored points with both cars for the first time this season.

“For Max to come away with a P6 and to limit the deficit to Lando [Norris] this weekend despite the challenges we’ve had is the best we could have hoped for,” said Horner.

“Yuki has had a very solid weekend. Qualifying in the top 10, finishing in the points today, he drove pretty well here in Bahrain.”

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