'Red Bull feels the Wheatley effect: Max Verstappen down in P20'

Former F1 team manager, Peter Windsor sees Red Bull's car being 'so bad', as the Austrian team 'also felt Jonathan Wheatley's departure effect' in what the analyst notes as 'sloppy' pit work.

Verstappen struggled from the get go in the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix

Even before the race started Verstappen was already dealing with issues in his RB21, Windsor noted, after race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase asked the 4-time world champion if everything was better with the car. "His only response was, 'well, yeah the car's not going into corners but I've got flick over steer as well so I don't want more front flap either.'

But the Dutchman's woes did not stop there. "And then on top of that, he did say quite early on in the race, 'I can't stop the car.' So a really, really difficult three days for Max Verstappen," observes the Australian who also sees that Red Bull "can't get on top of that [the RB21's issues]."

Red Bull felt the 'Wheatley effect' in Bahrain

As it often happens in life, when it rains it pours, and so it did for Verstappen at Bahrain, Windsor then adds. "Two slow pit stops for Max Verstappen. Let me repeat that. Red Bull making two slow pit stops for Max Verstappen. I don't think that's ever happened. Two stops in one race, both of them disastrous."

And the former Williams employee points out what he believes could be a connection to the slow pit stops. "Interesting, isn't it? Jonathan Wheatley is now at Sauber. And you wonder whether there's a bit of an effect here of Jonathan Wheatley. I wonder whether that's something that Red Bull are now missing.

"Because he's been there for many years or was there for many years and the pit work at Red Bull was always second to none. Now it looks sloppy, well it was sloppy in Bahrain, no doubt about it. Max will not be pleased about that at all. Driving a car that bad every tenth of a second matters. And when you blow all that time in two basic pit stop mistakes like that, then it's really bad.

"And from the second one, he rejoined in 20th place. Can you believe? Max Verstappen, winner of the Japanese Grand Prix, rejoining after his second pit stop down to P20 mid-race. Of course, that didn't help.

Verstappen's hunger in F1, 'a good signal'

Throughout the race, Verstappen was unable to attack the front-running cars, as the pace wasn't there in the RB21 for the Dutchman to keep up with the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Instead he got stuck behind the Haas of Esteban Ocon, and subsequently the Alpine of Pierre Gasly.

"The Red Bull was so bad, he could do very little about Esteban Ocon in the Hasperari, and he couldn't pass Pierre Gasly in the Alpine until the last couple of laps when Pierre really started to lose grip on the hard tyres."

"Beautiful pass by Max and he did exactly what Lando hadn't been doing. He perfectly timed the pass at the end of the straight and got him into [the] fourth [corner] on the last lap, as Oscar Piasti was basically taking the chequered flag, Max took P6."

Windsor then highlights Verstappen's hunger, 'a good sign' says the Australian, for all of the Dutchman's fans. "For a driver who's been through quite a lot, and he's won a few World Championships, and the car wasn't very good today, he's still hungry for P6 instead of P7. That's a good sign for all the Verstappen fans out there I think. Very good last lap by Max."

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