Verstappen’s teammate last year, Sergio Pérez, has been replaced by Liam Lawson this season, with the New Zealand driver set to make his full-time F1 debut in 2025. In the drizzly conditions in Bahrain, Lawson said he was fighting “a few teething gremlins” with his car as he sought to adjust to life alongside Verstappen.

Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 title defence is off to a less than ideal start with Red Bull at the Australian Grand Prix. Second practice on Friday at the Albert Park circuit was a test up and down the grid to see how teams would fare in low-fuel qualifying simulations and Red Bull couldn’t match the likes of McLaren or Ferrari.

But ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen reiterated that he is not the current favorite as the season begins. “Impossible to know at the moment,” said

Leclerc was fast on Friday. Norris and Piastri were both incredibly strong. Lewis Hamilton ...was also there, and outpaced the reigning champ in FP2. At this point, it's pretty clear that Verstappen is driving – at best – the third best car on the grid. Hell, the Mercedes looked great on long runs too.

Max Verstappen has once again played down Red Bull’s chances at this weekend’s season-opening F1 Australian Grand Prix. The four-time world champion, who had already ruled out any hopes of Red Bull contesting for victory heading into the Melbourne weekend, was only seventh-fastest at the end of Friday practice.

Formula 1 defending champion Max Verstappen downplayed Red Bull's chances at Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, saying the car is slower than their rivals and still working through some issues.

This season everything is different: where Red Bull Racing invariably started off as towering favourites in recent years, this time it is McLaren, now tipped to dominate Formula 1. Yet Oscar Piastri thinks that a dominant team - as Red Bull was for a long time - won't be coming around for many years to come.