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Red Bull has changed its front brake ducts for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after the major temperature management problems that held Max Verstappen back in Bahrain.
Verstappen was set to miss out on victory because a reliability concern meant he was unable to challenge Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, even before a late retirement caused by a different problem feeding the engine with fuel.
Red Bull has corrected that problem, which caused its double-DNF late in the season opener. The team confirmed what The Race reported in the after the grand prix that a vacuum in the fuel pumps prevented them from drawing fuel and delivering it to the engine.
But while this was clearly the most severe issue as it condemned the two cars to retirement, Red Bull had another major concern during the race.
Verstappen had to manage his brake temperatures a lot and said it forced him to abandon fighting Leclerc for the win.
Red Bull has changed the front brake ducts for this weekend’s race in Saudi Arabia to provide more brake cooling in the interest of reliability.
“During testing the brakes were getting hot, we were trying to make fixes and we thought it would have been just about enough for the race,” said Verstappen.
“Of course, when you’re fighting and close to the car, they get warmer and that’s why I had to lift a lot.
“After my battle with Charles, basically after the third lap I had to back out because my brakes were literally on fire.
“I had to be careful with that, it was not worth it to try and force something when you have no brakes.
“We’ll try to make a fix on that because that’s costing us laptime, so I hope of course this weekend will be better already.”
Verstappen had qualified second, behind Leclerc, and fought the Ferrari for victory in a strong season opener for the world champion.
But he was far from pleased with the problem that afflicted both cars – or the fact an MGU-K problem forced a third Honda/Red Bull-engined car (Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri) to retire.
Asked by The Race if this should have been foreseen from testing or was just unfortunate, Verstappen said: “We didn’t encounter it in testing so we didn’t know about it at all and I don’t know how we would have spotted it.
“In a way you can say it’s unlucky, but it shouldn’t happen. It’s as simple as that.
“To retire basically three cars was pretty bad, there’s no way around that.
“We have to do better. If you want to fight for the title, you cannot have too many races like we had in Bahrain.”
Verstappen was also not entirely satisfied with the car’s performance overall and believes there is more to come from the RB18.
He described Red Bull as having “quite a few little things to get on top of” but admitted the issues “are easier than when you have an uncompetitive car”.
“I do know what I want to go faster, it’s just I don’t have it yet,” he said.
“So, we are trying to find that balance to go faster.
“These cars, the extra weight at low speed makes it quite a tricky car to set up, but of course, it’s also very track-dependent.
“Bahrain, you have more low-speed corners, hard on tyres, so let’s say low-speed doesn’t feel fantastic.
“Here it’s different, we’re at a street circuit so grip is different. But also a lot more high-speed corners so you’re definitely chasing something else from the car.
“I hope it works for us but we’ll find out soon.”
