Red Bull made one change to their 2025 F1 car that could explain Max Verstappen’s Bahrain qualifying complaints

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Max Verstappen was left frustrated at the end of qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, having only managed the seventh-fastest time.

Red Bull came to Bahrain on the back foot having not completed a long run in pre-season testing, while Verstappen was forced to make way for Ayumu Iwasa during FP1.

The RB21 is known for having a narrow setup window, with Verstappen choosing to make changes in between FP3 and qualifying after noticing his balance was not optimal.

Verstappen was on the cusp of dropping out in Q1 after making a mistake at Turn 14, causing his outside brakes to lock up. The Dutchman reported that he had an issue with the brakes over team radio before pitting, then went out again to set a time that put him through to Q2.

Red Bull fans demanded Christian Horner take action following Verstappen’s difficult session, while Yuki Tsunoda also came close to dropping out in Q1 after having his lap deleted due to track limits.

Discussing the problems Verstappen faced in qualifying, journalist Christian Menath pointed out one change Red Bull made over the winter break that could explain their problems when speaking on the Motorsport Magazin YouTube channel.

Red Bull made change that might explain Max Verstappen problems

Red Bull made a change to their brake supplier switching fully to Brembo callipers and discs, with the Italian company supplying them with their ‘Hulk’ brake discs – which is short for Happy Until Last Kilometer.

While the change in brake discs has not been officially identified as the root cause for Verstappen’s problems, it might go some way to explain why he was having such difficulty under the braking zones at Bahrain.

“Red Bull changed brake suppliers over the winter, they have been using Brembo this season. While we can’t say yet that it was really the material that was to blame, it was possibly also the mapping of the brake-by-wire system,” said Menath.

“Everything is a bit more complicated these days, but regardless of the problems the world champion simply doesn’t have any pace.”

Red Bull faces difficult Bahrain Grand Prix

Red Bull is by far the slowest of the four main teams in Bahrain, having been off the pace throughout most of practice and both Verstappen and Tsunoda failing to make it into the top five.

The team faces a difficult Bahrain race with tyre wear set to be high, one of the key traits of the RB21 that causes their drivers to struggle in the races.

Verstappen had the help of racing in clean air throughout the entire Japanese GP, while Tsunoda struggled to make any progress further down the grid in P15.

Oscar Piastri was unstoppable in qualifying but McLaren’s car is often on a knife edge, which is where Lando Norris struggled to improve any higher than P6 on the grid.