Critical Verstappen after victory: "Some things that need to be better'

Max Verstappen doubts that his team has already made a step forward from Bahrain. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was prey for the Dutchman, but it is clear that Red Bull Racing also has a lot of work to do.

Step forward in Saudi Arabia

After zero points in Bahrain, Red Bull needed a good result in Jeddah and it came with a win for Verstappen and a fourth place for Sergio Perez. The Mexican had also taken pole on Saturday. So it looks like Red Bull is already in a better position than it was in Bahrain, but the star driver isn't sure yet.

''Difficult to say if it's a step forward, but I think we are always learning and of course every track is different as well, in terms of what you need from the car, so still a lot of things to look at. Because clearly yesterday (Saturday) I wasn't very happy and also in the first stint it still wasn't how I would have liked it to be,'' the Dutchman said at the press conference.

Still a lot to learn for Red Bull

However, the Red Bull driver also noticed that it makes a world of difference where you drive. ''Being the car following, you just open up your tyre a bit sooner and it's not great out there. Because as soon as I felt like I was in clean air, the car actually did change a bit in balance. So yeah, we'll have a look but still quite a few things of course to get on top of because it's a very new car still,'' concludes Verstappen.

Compared to Bahrain, it was in any case a huge step forward statistically. After a zero score in Bahrain, the team could add 37 points after the race in Saudi Arabia. The gap of 41 points to Ferrari is still large, but certainly not insurmountable. Verstappen conquered 25 points and is thus in third place with twenty points less than Charles Leclerc.