A week after Red Bull encountered one problem after another in Bahrain, from balance and grip issues to failed pit stops, things went much better for the Austrians in Jeddah. Max Verstappen secured second place and was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by his team’s turnaround during the race weekend in the desert city.
Max Verstappen claimed second place in Jeddah behind Oscar Piastri, crossing the finish line 2.8 seconds after the Australian. This was a stark contrast to Friday in Jeddah, when the Dutchman clocked the ninth fastest time in the first free practice. Therefore, Verstappen says he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by Red Bull’s turnaround over the weekend.
“On Friday, it was very difficult,” says the world champion. “And it didn’t matter what I did in terms of driving or management, the tires just wore out. The car was much better in the race. There were still shortcomings, but the car had much more potential.”
Not Getting Ahead of Ourselves
Although Verstappen was pleasantly surprised with the RB21 on Sunday, the driver remains realistic about future races. “We shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves, because this track (Jeddah) doesn’t have much degradation and we know that when we go to tracks where there is more degradation, we just have more difficulties. We still need to work on that. But the changes we had already made on Saturday also worked for Sunday. So I’m very happy with that.”
