'Our mistake': Red Bull comes clean about Max Verstappen drama

Red Bull team officials have taken responsibility for the season-opening Formula One disaster that saw them leave Bahrain with zero points.

The first race of Max Verstappen's F1 title defence was one to forget for the Red Bull driver who, along with teammate Sergio Perez, failed to finish the race.

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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed victory in Bahrain in a stunning one-two finish for Ferrari after reigning champion Verstappen limped out of contention with two laps remaining.

By lap 37 of 57, Verstappen was arguing with his own team over their instructions from the pit lane and Leclerc had extended his lead to 2.3 seconds and held onto it for a deserved victory.

The race was disrupted when the safety car came out on the 51st lap after Pierre Gasly had to jump out of his AlphaTauri before it burst into flames.

When racing resumed, Sainz attacked Verstappen for second place but the Dutchman's race ended in bitter disappointment after he appeared to run out of power and limped to the pits on the 55th lap.

Red Bull have since revealed that both their drivers suffered from fuel issues, with a fuel pump problem meaning the last few litres in their tanks were unusable.

Perez was also forced to retire on the final lap as a result of the drama.

The fuel issues aside, Verstappen could also be heard engaging in a running battle with Red Bull officials over team radio, with details coming to light about a tyre strategy that left the Dutchman fuming.

Verstappen twice pitted a lap before Leclerc in the hopes that he'd be able to pass the Ferrari driver on fresh tyres when his rival pitted.

"That is two times I have taken it easy on the outlap and not been in front," Verstappen fumed. "I am never, ever doing that again."

Red Bull officials take blame for error in strategy

Red Bull's Helmut Marko admitted afterwards that it was the team's decision to make sure Verstappen preserved the tyres for the latter stages of the race.

Marko said that had Verstappen been allowed to drive at his "normal pace", then the final result may have been different.

"Max was actually told to hold back during his outlaps," Marko told Motorsport.com.

"If he had driven at a normal pace, he would have been in front of Leclerc. And when you're in front, it's a completely different story.

"But our tyre degradation was incredibly higher than Ferrari and the power of the Ferrari engine was very impressive as well. But still, if Max had been in front of Leclerc, maybe the story would have been different.

"It was all about the strategy from us. So it was our mistake, not Max's."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner conceded that despite the error in strategy, Ferrari probably had too much pace to contend with, regardless.

"I think we underestimated the undercut, but I think Ferrari had the pace today that had we got that track position, they would have made the overtake. We just didn't quite have that pace today," he said.

with agencies

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