Max Verstappen says McLaren is the favorite on paper in Bahrain

Max Verstappen won the race in Japan last Sunday, where there was low tire degradation, but the famous driver expects McLaren to dominate the next race.

Although the Dutchman achieved victory over McLaren at last week's Japanese Grand Prix, the feeling that the track in Bahrain, known for higher tire wear, will be an obstacle for Red Bull for his team.

It is well known that McLaren's MCL39 has an advantage over the competition when it comes to tire degradation during longer stints, and this could be felt during testing in Bahrain; estimates say they have an average advantage of around 0.4 seconds per lap during a longer stint.

Due to the low level of tire wear on the Suzuki, Red Bull's disadvantage compared to McLaren was quite mitigated. The new asphalting of the track significantly reduced tire consumption, which was mainly affected only by thermal degradation on the rear axle; which in the end did not have a big impact.

However, Bahrain has a completely different surface, as the asphalt has not been changed since the track opened in 2004. High consumption and warm temperatures, even at night, mean that drivers will have to put in a lot of effort to save their tires during the race. This will not be easy, even with the hardest mixture of Pirelli components.

McLaren

The Red Bull driver expects McLaren to be the favorite on paper, and believes that even at Suzuka he had a slight disadvantage in preserving the tires compared to the team from Woking in the first stint, but this could hardly be noticed because Lando Norris failed to overtake him - which he will use again on Sakhir.

"It will be more serious. In the first stint in Australia we were completely destroyed due to overheating, same in China," said Verstappen.

"I'd say that was the case at Suzuka to a certain extent, but you can't overtake there because Lando was closing in on me again towards the end of that first stint. I rode my pace, but I think the drop in track temperature that day helped a bit."

"It will be hot here. We drive at night, so it will cool down a bit, but it will still be warm with the aggressive asphalt."

"On paper, from what we've seen so far this season, it's not ideal for us compared to McLaren. But of course it's up to us to try to find those improvements in the car or the behavior of the tires and go from there."