Red Bull voice worrying concern ahead of Verstappen F1 title defence

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache cast a downbeat figure after F1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Frenchman explained the three days of running did not quite go as planned for the Milton Keynes squad, bemoaning the RB21, which "did not respond" how Red Bull wanted on a consistent basis.

Two major issues also curtailed the six-time constructors' champion's running, something that affected both Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson. The former lost time due to a engine oil system leak and the latter suffered a cooling issue.

Nonetheless, the Wache maintained it is better to uncover problems in testing than it is once racing commences in Melbourne next month.

"It was not as smooth a test as we expected and the team expected, but it is better to find some problems here than later down the line and it is why we are here, to understand the car," the 50-year-old said.

"I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times, but it is going in the right direction, just maybe the magnitude of the direction was not as big as we expected and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development."

How things are looking for Melbourne

Verstappen is concerned that Red Bull will not be leading the fight once the paddock gets to the Australian Grand Prix, saying: "I do not expect us [Red Bull] to be the fastest at all."

Wache, however, does believe the team is there or thereabouts, with the leading four squads seemingly keeping one another close company at the sharp end.

"I think it’s very difficult to see a starting order for Melbourne across the grid right now, you see that four teams look quite quick, including us, but we didn’t look too much at other teams, we tried to focus on our programme," he said.

Aside from issues with the RB21 and three bizarre red flags during the test, there was also adverse weather to content with. Bahrain proved cooler and wetter than expected - or how it will be when F1 returns in April.

Describing what Red Bull did successfully do in its 24 hours of running, Wache added: "The weather was not with us and not very representative of this track, but we tried to explore the potential of the car and tried to understand how it responds to different set-ups, and I think we more or less achieved that.