Red Bull RB21 Struggling with 'Temperatures' at the Bahrain Grand Prix

Red Bull Racing achieved their first victory of the season in Japan, leading many to believe that momentum may have shifted from the Woking-based McLaren team to Red Bull.

Max Verstappen was approaching the Bahrain Grand Prix with caution due to the strength of the MCL39.

After two sessions of running the cars, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is tempering expectations for the energy drink racing team.

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"The temperatures dictate everything and Max obviously missing that first session, jumping straight in, two sets of soft tyres, we've got quite a bit to do tonight I think," Horner said to reporters after FP2.

"The McLarens look very, very quick, the rest of the Mercedes, Ferrari all look pretty close, but Mercedes definitely look like they have a few tenths on the rest of the field," he added.

Since Max Verstappen stepped out of his seat to give Ayumu Iwasa a chance during FP1, FP2 was the only truly representative session for Red Bull.

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Also, the weather conditions on track for FP1 were much hotter than they will be for the race and qualifying.

After a series of qualifying runs during FP2, Verstappen was in P7, while Yuki Tsunoda was at P18. Red Bull appears to be out of contention for a podium finish in the race; however, Horner still believes that with time, the team can adjust the car to perform better than it has shown.

"They look very, very strong, so first of all, we've got to understand how can we improve what we have, which is mainly, I think, temperature related," he added.

"So far this season we've not been in the top six in FP2, but we've managed to qualify better than that, so we've got some work to do this evening to understand where are the limitations and improve it for tomorrow."

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Last week in Japan had a similar start for Max, but when the car came to him, he managed to deliver an impressive performance on Saturday and Sunday.

Horner thinks it is hard to replicate what Verstappen did in Suzuka.

"Impossible to repeat what he did last week in terms of a single lap and holding the cars behind for an entire Grand Prix," he said.

"This is a track you can overtake at relatively easy."

"It's one of the easier ones that you can overtake at, so a bit of work to do with the engineers tonight, but they'll get into it now."

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