Red Bull has admitted that it has not had the pre-season Formula 1 test that it had hoped for, with its new RB21 not responding how it wants.
The team had targeted creating a car for this season with a wider operating window after 2024's mid-season struggles with its peaky RB20, although Max Verstappen was still able to hold off Lando Norris for the title.
But early feedback about its 2025 car from Bahrain testing has not been ideal as Red Bull admits that it needs to find improvements for the start of the season if it is to be fighting right at the front with McLaren.
Reflecting on the final day of running, Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache said: "It was not as smooth a test as we expected and the team expected, but it is better to find some problems here than later down the line and it is why we are here, to understand the car."
While Red Bull did a lot of set-up experiments to get a better grasp of the car's characteristics over the three days, Wache expressed some unease that not all its work had paid off – and that progress was not as much as it had hoped for.
"I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times," he said.
"But it is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it's something we need to work on for the first race and future development."
Verstappen, who 12 months ago enjoyed a clearly fast car that proved dominant at the start of the season, is in no doubt the squad is starting 2025 on the back foot.
Reflecting on his final day in the car before Australia, Verstappen said: "I think it wasn't bad but at the same time there is still a bit of work to do. However, it is what we expected and we will keep on working and keep on trying to improve.
"Hopefully, as we go into Melbourne, we will learn a bit more by going through all the data and see where we are at. It is difficult to tell where everyone's pace is, so there is still a bit of work to do for us. We are looking forward to starting racing properly again in Australia."
Trackside verdict: Warning signs
By Scott Mitchell-Malm
Wache's words chime with the impression Red Bull and Verstappen left trackside and within the paddock.
Red Bull was already playing catch up a little bit after a water leak slightly limited Liam Lawson's full day in the car on Thursday.
Then there were whispers that a 2024 trait of understeer leading to exit oversteer was still apparent when Verstappen took over on Friday. A range of set-up experiments may help explain this, but still.
In a two-hour trip trackside at the end of the day, we noticed three separate runs in which Verstappen appeared with flo-vis on a sidepod - twice on the right-hand side, once on the left, and in different parts of the sidepod each time.
It suggested that right up until almost the final moments of testing, Red Bull was still searching for some answers.
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Testing is exactly what teams were here to do, and Red Bull was experimenting a lot this week to understand how much it has broadened its working window, which was its main target for this car.
But flo-vis in the final hour is a rare sight and not normally a sign of a team that has it all together. And even though Verstappen seemed to make it work well enough late on – and other runs proved this can be a quick car - it doesn't look 'easy quick'.
This is very easily explained by the fact Red Bull hasn't yet made the progress it thought it would, and encountered more issues than it expected.
There's time for that to change before Australia but if it does not, and the lead group is as tight as it looks, it could be the difference between Red Bull being second or fourth in the lead group.
