Red Bull runs dry at the Bahrain GP

A firecracker.

That definition, and its multiple synonyms, was the most used this Sunday to define Red Bull's passage through the first stop on the Formula 1 World Championship calendar, in Bahrain, where he appeared with the label of favorite to win and left with the satchel as empty as it was when it arrived.

The abandonment of Max Verstappen and Checo Pérez three laps and one from the end, respectively, and while the second (Verstappen) and third (Pérez) were circulating, as well as the unquestionable victory of Ferrari at the hands of Charles Leclerc, force us to recalibrate the role with which the two teams face a season that is expected to be explosive, much more open than the last ones.

The speed and reliability exhibited by the car from Maranello and the Haas, its little brother -Kevin Magnussen finished fifth-, contrasted with the laziness of the single-seaters of the red buffalo and Alpha Tauri, its B formation, which also saw how the car of Pierre Gasly started to burn in the last section of a race that set off all the alarms in Milton Keynes, where the W13 of the current champion and his partner await, to do the autopsy as soon as possible.

Next Sunday there is a grand prix in Saudi Arabia, and by then the trigger for the trigger at the Sakhir circuit should have been identified and, as far as possible, resolved.

"The gasoline did not reach the engine and everything turned off, so I decided to go into the workshop," Verstappen declared after getting off his prototype, giving clues as to where the technicians must surely direct their investigations.

Christian Horner, the director of the Milton Keynes (Great Britain) troop.

“The faults in the two cars seem very similar.

This problem had never happened to us before.

We have to take the cars back to the factory, disassemble the gasoline supply system and understand what happened, because we know that there was gasoline in the tanks," said the British executive, who defined as "a nightmare" the fact that leave Bahrain with a bagel in the locker.

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At this point, the primary aspect for the energy team is to find the root of the matter.

Clearly there was some aspect of the RB18 that was neglected this winter.

In this sense, it must be taken into account that the field of aerodynamics was the most affected by the reformulation of the technical regulations that were applied this year.

But not the only one.

A very substantial change was also introduced in the propellant, relative to the fuel, which, from now on, must incorporate 10% ethanol, in a trend to try to get closer to a more sustainable format.

This new fuel causes the power unit to see its working temperature modified, a circumstance that caused some problems for several teams in pre-season training.

These malfunctions occurred at a time when cars circulated with few liters in the tank.

Precisely, those are the conditions in which the two Red Bulls were just when they ran dry.

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