Max Verstappen says Red Bull can “do a lot better” th🅰an its early performances have suggested so far in the 201☂9 Formula 1 season. 

Red Bull enjoyed a competitive season-opener in Melbourne, with Verstappen beating the Ferraris to secure Honda’s f♔irst pod💧ium of the V6 hybrid era to kick off its new engine collaboration on a positive note.

But the team was less competitive in Bahrain as both drivers struggled with set-up and car balance throughout the we📖ekend. Verstappen ultimately ended up fourth, while Pierre Gasly finished eighth to register his first points of the season. 

“It cannot be worse than what we showed h🌼ere,” Verstappen said when asked for hi𝕴s thoughts on Red Bull’s chances in China. 

“We made some mist🐟akes in terms of s💙etup [in Bahrain], so I think if you look back to Australia we were quite happy. 

“We were still 20 seconds off to Valtteri [Bottas], but in that race I couldn’t go and push like I wanted to because I was always held up by other cars. I think we can do a lot better t💎han what we showed so far.”

Verstappen got some additional running in Red Bull’s RB15 car on the opening day of the post-Bahrain Grand Pri💦x test on Tuesday and described the outing as “very helpful” in the team’s efforts to better understand its 201𓂃9 challenger. 

“I think we learnt a lot al💮ready from it so f🎃rom that way I think it is very positive,” he added. 

“We don’t have that many days to really understand the car and during the weekeꦅnd it all goes very quickly doing just one-and-a-half hour sessions, which is not amazing, so to have a day like this was very helpful.”

Asked which areas Red Bull has targeted for improvement, Verstappen replied: “In every area yo💫u can always work on, we knew what went wrong here in terms of rear grip so𝔍 we tried to work on that.

“It’s a bit of everything. You always want more downforce, but it is also about how you can balanꦗce it. Clearly we did som🍌ething wrong during the weekend so that is why it [the test] was a very positive for us.”