Windsor: 'If Red Bull don't give Verstappen this, he's another Yuki Tsunoda'

Former F1 team manager, Peter Windsor has weighed in on the tough situation Red Bull and Max Verstappen are experiencing, and sees the Dutchman as being comparable to Yuki Tsunoda if the brake performance is not there in the Red Bull car.

Red Bull's lack of progression throught the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix, 'a big worry'

"It looks to me like things have gone downhill since Jonathan (Wheatley, ed.) left," says Windsor on Cameron CC's podcast, before asking the question: "The absence of Adrian Newey now is it to have an effect? Is there something that Adrian would have done on that car Friday night that would have given Max a half reasonable race car by Sunday that didn't happen on this occasion?"

"It's the first time really since Adrian left that Red Bull have had a weekend where the car didn't get any better from Friday through to Sunday night and I'd say that's a big worry and obviously they don't understand what this issue is," adds Windsor who agrees with several assessments that point to Red Bull's lack of understanding as to where the issues that afflict their F1 car are.

"He [Verstappen] talks a lot on the radio about the brakes, 'I can't stop the car, got no brakes.' And yet he often talks about how he's got no front end, it doesn't turn in, he's got no grip and [how it's] very difficult to manage the tyres."

Read also

Is there a rift between Verstappen and Red Bull? 'You have to ask them'

'Without the brake performance, Verstappen is another Yuki Tsunoda'

Verstappen's complaints, Windsor believes he knows what's at the root of the, underlining a performance equaliser that negates a powerful advantage for the Dutchman as it's integral to his driving style, particularly in the unique way he brakes.

"It's all part and parcel of the same thing. Because what we should remember is that Max uses the brakes very differently from virtually every driver on the grid. He's using the brakes into the corner in a way that Lando Norris never uses the brakes, for example. And so the brakes are part of the way Max gets into corners. It's how he uses the front of the car.

"And if he doesn't have the feel and the brake pedal pressure that he needs in order to do that lovely balancing act that he has when he's gone in early into a corner and he's just going down to what he knows is the right rotation point, then he's completely lost. He's just a normal racing driver then. He's a Yuki Tsunoda almost. And he's got nothing else he can impart."

Verstappen could only be P6 at the line in Bahrain. Instead of fighting the McLarens, the Mercedes, or even the Ferrari's, the Dutchman had his handful battling Haas F1's Esteban Ocon, Williams' Carlos Sainz and for around 20 laps he failed to get past Pierre Gasly's Alpine, which he only managed to do on the last lap of the race with a carefully calculated maneuver.

"That must be a horrendous feeling for Max when that happens. And that's how he basically drove Bahrain. And so the big question is, why is that happening?"