Red Bull chief engineer: 'I've rarely seen our guys so disappointed'

Throughout the weekend Max Verstappen was the fastest man on track in Bahrain, but in the end the win went to Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. The Dutchman was just a few meters short.

Attacking strategy

Mercedes opted for an attacking strategy in Bahrain and by sending Hamilton into the pits early on they were able to take over the lead in the race. With ten laps to go Verstappen was nine seconds behind the world champion, who managed to catch up very quickly. The outcome is now known. Going wide at turn four meant the Dutchman had to give his position back to Hamilton and was unable to mount another attack after that.

Different strategy for Red Bull?

At Speedweek.com Paul Monaghan, chief engineer at Red Bull Racing, is asked if a different strategy should not have been chosen. "We were not surprised by Mercedes' approach. You could say that at the second stop we should have brought Max to the pits earlier, but then he would have had to overtake Lewis on older tyres."

"You could also argue that we could have delayed the second stop even more so that Max had fresher tyres at the end of the race," Monaghan continued. "In the end, we just played our cards differently and came up two metres short of victory behind that kerb at Turn 4."

Disappointment

Missing out on victory hit Red Bull hard. "I've rarely seen our guys so disappointed with second place. And that sounds strange because most race teams would be licking their fingers after a second-place finish and 18 points for their driver. But we had the fastest car, we were on pole position."

However, the chief engineer does believe that this disappointment will be short-lived. "When people have shaken off the initial disappointment, they are left with a strong impression: we have a fast car, we have two great drivers and we will try again in Imola. If we win there, Bahrain will soon be forgotten."