Windsor predicts strong race for Verstappen: 'That speed was impressive'

With the new regulations, there were still many unknown factors in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. This season Red Bull Racing and Ferrari seem to be fastest, but with the new regulations, no one knows to what extent the cars can develop further this season.

In Bahrain, the battle for pole position was at least between the drivers of Ferrari and Red Bull. Charles Leclerc was ultimately a fraction faster than Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. According to Peter Windsor, it is a good performance by Ferrari that they managed to get pole, but Red Bull is the favorite for victory in Bahrain.

Indeed, he sees Leclerc who was only cautiously optimistic after qualifying. He expressed concern about Verstappen though. "I think he is talking about the speed of Max Verstappen on Friday. He did a longer run on the medium, longer than anyone else. Then, when the sun had set, he did exactly the same thing on the softest tyre and that was quite impressive," the F1 journalist explained in his review of qualifying.

Windsor therefore expects that the Dutchman's focus all weekend has been on Sunday, which is why he did not have the car to achieve pole position with on Saturday. He thinks Red Bull has tuned Verstappen's setup all the way to Sunday, to best handle the new 18-inch tyres. Because, for all the teams, it is still unclear how the new tyres will perform in a Grand Prix.