Adrian Newey has revealed how Red Bull worked to address a problem relating to reliability during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. The team delivered a dominant performance in Sunday's race, with Max Verstappen leading Sergio Perez in a 1-2 result for the reigning champions. However, the squad experienced some unexpected issues with the RB19 during Friday's running, and Newey is proud of the work they put in to bounce back for race day. "Last year was a proper [night]mare for us, that's for sure," Newey told the F1 Nation podcast, referencing Red Bull's double DNF at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix. "I think 2011 was the last time we won the first race [of the season], so it's the end of a long dry spell in that sense. "The [pre-season] test went well for us, we thought we had a competitive car. [In] FP1, I must admit, that wiped the smile off us a bit because we had a few problems, and the boys reacted really well. "We had quite a long evening on Friday night with getting over those problems."
Red Bull faced 'unexpected' problem in Bahrain
When asked whether the issues that the team faced in Bahrain were new, Newey explained: "Yes, they were. "There was an unexpected problem on the car from a reliability point of view on Friday, which meant some extra work. "Because the bottom line is for all teams, obviously, you've got the kind of little 50k splash around and then three days of testing, so it really isn't very much [time to prepare]. "It's amazing just how reliable the grid has been, given that lack of testing. But it certainly caught us out on Friday. "The car wasn't behaving quite the same as we expected it to do, the conditions seemed to have changed slightly, so it might have looked smooth on the outside, but it was the duck [paddling] underneath the water on Friday and Saturday!"
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