Red Bull weigh up 'difficult decisions' on Verstappen-Hadjar team orders after Baku GP

Red Bull's strong performance at the Baku City Circuit saw Verstappen and Hadjar finish P2 and P3, respectively, with the Dutchman just 0.1s behind winner George Russell. Earlier in the race, however, with Verstappen struggling on medium tyres behind Oscar Piastri, while teammate Hadjar closely followed, some believed at the time Red Bull should have made a swap.

The Austrian squad's impressive pace, following upgrades at the Azerbaijan GP weekend last weekend, looks like it could continue in Sepang, host of the Bahrain GP in Malaysia. Verstappen led the way in FP1, three tenths ahead of Russell, and a further four on Hadjar.

However, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies is not getting excited just yet, citing extreme heat and tyre degradation upon F1's return to Sepang for the first time since 2017.

Mekies told Sky F1: "It's early to get excited because it's only FP1 but Max and Isack did a good job in very difficult conditions - they got into a rhythm pretty quickly.

Attention then turned to Hadjar's performances, with Mekies questioned over whether Red Bull face a 'new problem' given the Frenchman's impressive pace up against four-time world champion Verstappen.

"Look, Baku was outstanding from Isaac, Mekies said. "And he should get the praise for that. Because coming back after six weeks and doing what he did in terms of race pace, in terms of how clever he raced, was really outstanding. I think it's a good problem to have if we get to the situations you are talking about"

Mekies has no concerns over whether or not Verstappen and Hadjar play the team game, and in fact welcomed the prospect of having to make "difficult decisions" between them, as it would be a sign of strong performances from both drivers.

"Honestly, it was a very, very strong teamwork and team spirit last race," Mekies continued. "And I think both drivers are on board when it comes to maximising the team results. And if we get to make difficult decisions in the future, it means that we are in a very, very strong position. So we only wish that to ourselves."