Did Red Bull have critical problems in Bahrain?

Red Bull Racing had a great season opener. The Austrian team a one-two at the first Grand Prix of the season. Verstappen and Pèrez were supreme, but according to Martin Brundle, there were serious problems during the race.

Verstappen and Pèrez started the Bahrain Grand Prix first and second respectively. Verstappen, unlike Pèrez, had a good start. The Mexican was overtaken by Charles Leclerc during the start. While Pèrez tried to overtake the Ferrari driver, the Dutchman disappeared into the horizon. After his second stop, Checo managed to outsmart the Monegasque and there seemed little left for Red Bull. But Brundle revealed that this was not so after all.

In Brundle's column at British Sky Sports he spoke about gearbox problems in both cars. Max Verstappen also spoke about gearbox problems, but gave the impression that it was not all that bad. Whether Brundle and Verstappen are talking about the same problems is unclear. Brundle seems to have heard something different. "Talking to a couple of key people after the race it clearly wasn't as plain sailing for Red Bull as it looked. Both the cars had new oil inlet pipes fitted in parc ferme, and in the race they were managing critical transmission issues on both cars."

Fortunately for the Austrian racing stable, this did not cause any dropouts. This would have made the race for Red Bull the same as last year. On that occasion both cars of Max Verstappen's team failed with reliability problems. So this year, with a one-two result, things went much better for Red Bull.