Red Bull openly confessed at the end of the Bahrain pre-season Formula 1 test that it had not had the week it wanted.
Complications caused by the changeable weather conditions, niggling reliability troubles that meant it never put in a proper representative race run, and a car that looked a handful of times, all conspired to leave the impression that Red Bull was well on the backfoot.
As the paddock united around the viewpoint that McLaren is starting the season as favourite, Red Bull was not pretending that the pecking order was any different.
Its own press release after the test owned up to things not having been as smooth as it would have liked, and a change of direction that the team had been looking for having not been of the magnitude it expected.
But there is no sense of full-on panic stations from Red Bull, for it seems more to be a case of it needing to unlock a better understanding of its RB21, than it having made a misstep with its design.
New car niggles
Red Bull's challenging week stood out a little because it is all a world away from how things were 12 months ago, when the squad hit the ground running in testing and duly went on to dominate the start of the season.
It is important to understand, however, that while it was not a stellar week for the camp this time, it equally was not a disaster. And Red Bull's woes appear to be more about it having not yet found a sweet spot for its car, rather than it battling some fundamental issue.
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Technical director Pierre Wache told The Race: "We have some feedback that is as we expect, in terms of how the car reacts and in terms of balance. There are more flatter characteristics than the peakiness [from last year].
"But I think we still have work to do on how to use the potential of it. It is difficult to rebalance the car currently, but we are exploring different solutions.
"The first day was OK. [The second day], we didn't find a sweet spot. And we also had some issues. So it is difficult to say in terms of competitiveness at the moment."
The RB21 misconception
Confusion over Red Bull's form seems to have been compounded by the fact that it has not been obvious just how different its new RB21 is.
When the car first appeared, initial photos made it appear to be so similar to its predecessor that there were questions about whether this was really its new car or not.
As everyone got a better look of the RB21 in Bahrain testing last week, the detailed changes became a bit clearer but the visual differences were still not so obvious.
Looks can be deceiving, though, and it has since emerged that although there are no striking visual differences between the 2024 and 2025 Red Bull designs, there are still some pretty big revisions.
A lot of the changes the team has made have been under the skin or in areas that are hidden – like the floor, which is such a critical area of car performance. Most 'wet' surfaces (those in direct contact with the airflow) have been honed and any work done in reducing weight can never be spotted by the naked eye.
Wache offers an interesting perspective on the car, which goes counter to what those from the outside may have initially suspected.
It is that the change from last year's car to the RB21 is much greater a concept shift than between its drastically different 2023 and 2024 challengers.
"I think it's more different than what we saw between RB19 and RB20 in terms of characteristic," he said.
"After the end of the season of the RB19, there was an evolution. The shape [of the RB20] was massively different, but it was the same concept type.
"Now, clearly, the way we extract the speed, the characteristic of the car, is quite different."
This concept shift is all about opening up the performance window of the car - because it was a bit too peaky last year with a narrow operating window.
However, a consequence of making a significant concept change is needing to start from scratch again when it comes to understanding the quirks of a new set-up, and the range that it works in.
Red Bull's focus in Bahrain was defining these boundaries, and the team failed to make the progress it wanted in getting on top of things.
Until it works out exactly where the RB21 is happy operating, then it is hard to know just what kind of potential there is in the car.
"To be competitive, you have to extract the potential of it at one point in terms of how you use it," said Wache.
"What it [the changes for 2025] gives us is a little bit more option to rebalance it. It is taking more time to understand what is your best option, and I think that is the process we are in at the moment."
Time ultimately ran out for Red Bull in Bahrain, as it tried to cram in as much aero evaluation and as many set-up experiments as possible – right up until the chequered flag on Friday evening when it was still throwing flo-vis on to the outer surfaces – rather than worrying too much about the race simulations.
But while it knows it is heading into Australia as the hunter rather than the hunted, Red Bull is far from throwing the towel in. It still feels the scope is there for things to change soon.
"I think it will be tight," said Wache about the anticipated formbook right now.
"At the moment it doesn't look like we are quick enough, but after we will see. It looks like McLaren and Ferrari are quicker."
