Red Bull has work to do: 'Optimal 'window' smaller than Ferrari'

Max Verstappen retired due to a problem with his RB18, but Peter Windsor saw problems with Red Bull Racing's car even before the Dutchman's failure. Compared to Ferrari, the Austrian team is just not fast enough.

On Friday, there were still high hopes that Verstappen and Red Bull could attack Ferrari in Australia. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were very fast during the first practice sessions, but Verstappen and his team were getting closer and closer. A P2 in qualifying offered hope, but in the race Verstappen quickly had to choose for his money.

''Max Verstappen was thinking this is a race to finish P2. We don't have the car right yet. Too much top speed, and don't have enough grip and balance. They don't have a big enough 'window' to balance the car in different situations. So for him it was about P2, but that all ended when Verstappen smelt something strange," Windsor says in his video.

The former Williams team manager sees an overarching problem for Red Bull that also stood out during the first races. The team has a lot of top speed, but cannot convert that top speed into extra downforce or better balance to better save the tyres. As a result, there was nothing to do against Ferrari in Melbourne.

The 'window' that the Red Bull is good at is a lot smaller than Ferrari's 'window'. So for the coming races Red Bull has work to do. According to Windsor, Perez handled the wear and tear better than Verstappen, but the Mexican was very slow with a full tank at the beginning of the race. It is therefore not entirely a fair comparison according to the analyst.