How the Bahrain GP in Malaysia exposed Red Bull’s hidden resurgence

In 2009 the Malaysian Grand Prix was halted early because of a torrential thunderstorm and half-points awarded, the legacy of a foolish decision to start the race later than before – 15:00 local – setting it on a collision course with this region’s regular afternoon downpour.

Some people never learn from the past, hence 15:00 was again enshrined as the start time as Malaysia returned after a nine-year hiatus to act as a proxy venue for the Bahrain Grand Prix. But some do.

A detail many forget about that 2009 Malaysian GP is that it had been raining for 10 laps before the storm intensified quickly, forcing the stoppage. During that phase, those drivers who had pitted for wet-weather rubber at the onset of the rain suffered as their tyres quickly degraded – the track wasn’t wet enough because the super-abrasive surface drains and dries quickly in the Malaysian heat.

This is one explanation for why Ferrari and McLaren both opted to start their drivers on slick rubber for the 2026 'Bahraysian' Grand Prix, despite or perhaps because of that start being delayed by 93 minutes owing to – quelle surprise – a pre-race downpour. The rain had long since abated before we finally had lights-out, much of the delay coming as a consequence of a software issue which wrought chaos on the initial attempt at a formation lap.

What happened next is that the track took much longer than expected to dry to the point where slicks would be a better choice than intermediates. Indeed, it was only just approaching the 'crossover point' when Valtteri Botttas binned his Cadillac at Turn 13 on lap nine, triggering a safety car deployment which prompted the entire field to pit. By this stage the slick runners were already over a minute behind the leading group.

Lewis Hamilton had qualified second behind polesitter Max Verstappen, and this and subsequent course neutralisations would assist his recovery to third place at the chequered flag, but would he have been in the hunt for victory if the team had made the right call on tyres at the start? Probably not.

Hamilton dropped to the rear of the field by opting to start on slicks, but the race unfolded in his favour to see him charge to third

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

Verstappen was in a class of his own this weekend, despite losing track position to both Mercedes at the start. In the opening laps Kimi Antonelli led from George Russell but this was not to be a typical weekend of dominance for the teal/silver arrows; Verstappen remained in close attendance even as Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar slipped back gradually in fourth place.

Mercedes running 1-2 in formation was very much an outlier in a weekend where the W17 has suffered worse tyre degradation than most others on the rough surface, as well as a straightline-speed deficit the team has struggled to explain. The issues prevented it from getting a read on the comprehensive aerodynamic update originally scheduled for Singapore, but expedited to be ready for this relatively late addition to the calendar.

It seemed an issue of when, rather than if, Verstappen would pass the Mercedes and he nailed Russell at Turn 4 on lap six, then scalped Antonelli at Turn 1 after the restart, enabling Russell to slip by his team-mate too until Antonelli inverted the order on lap 21. Verstappen had run the only set of new softs available to him, while the Mercedes drivers took on mediums. As with the previous weekend in Baku, the softest rubber proved counter-intuitively resilient and a better race tyre than the medium.

What the outcome in Malaysia pointed towards is a picture of Red Bull properly finding its feet after a sub-optimal start to the season

Thereafter Antonelli and Russell fell away by degrees, and were only brought back into contention by further course neutralisations, including a late safety car brought out by Alex Albon's Williams sticking in gear. Russell then suffered what Mercedes explained was a suspected power unit failure just as the race was about to go green again.

Race pace panned out more or less as signposted by the long runs during Friday's second practice session: Verstappen’s Red Bull fractionally faster than the fastest Ferrari (Leclerc) and McLaren (Norris), but four tenths up on the fastest Mercedes (Russell). In qualifying Antonelli was quicker than Russell but still half a second off Verstappen, while the McLarens were six tenths off pole pace.

What the outcome in Malaysia pointed towards is a picture of Red Bull properly finding its feet after a sub-optimal start to the season. The renaissance has been in the works for a while, but been obscured by circumstances: in Madrid, for instance, Verstappen was only 0.140s off pole but then hamstrung by having to give up track position early on at a venue unfavourable to overtaking. Red Bull anticipated it could win in Baku, only for power unit issues to hold Max back – but even then, Mercedes noted his ability to close in on eventual winner Russell on the straights.

Mercedes' joy was short-lived when both drivers bolted ahead of Verstappen at the start

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Hadjar may not have had a great race in Malaysia but earlier in the weekend he alluded to how different the RB21 felt when he got into it after his three-race lay-off with a wrist injury.

"I definitely feel like I jumped in a car that's way better than when I left it in Budapest," he said. "When you step out actually for three races and you come back, you actually notice a bigger difference."

Red Bull has thrown resources at improving its car with major update packages arriving in Miami, Austria and Azerbaijan. But one of its key strengths over the past few seasons has been the ability to improve the car through learning more about its quirks. In 2026 that has extended to the new process of running its own power unit.

After qualifying on pole in Malaysia, Verstappen talked about how the upgrades had "pushed weaknesses out of the car", then further performance has come through that learning process. Among his key complaints this year has been the way the suspension appears to lose performance through a race weekend. This also seems to have been addressed, but what Verstappen has highlighted was that the car now has a better and more connected balance which makes it more driveable.

What’s been apparent this weekend is that a lot of assumptions about car characteristics have been turned on their heads. At the beginning of the season the RB21 was noticeably weak through medium and high-speed corners – the type which dominate at Sepang, where it absolutely flew. It was also the strongest in a straight line. These are usually areas where Mercedes leads the pack, but not here, where it also suffered crippling understeer in those signature Hermann Tilke slow corners after long straights.

Ferrari was, as usual, quick in the slower stuff but also decent in the medium-speed corners, hence Hamilton’s dominance in sector two on his qualifying lap: this begins and ends with fiddly slow-speed areas (Turns 4 and 9), but also needs agility and flow through the combined corners of Turns 5 and 6, followed by 7 and 8. Here Hamilton took three tenths out of Verstappen but ended up three tenths down overall because the Red Bull was so quick down the final straight.

Verstappen's Red Bull dominated the first and third sectors at Sepang

Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images

Even if Hamilton and Leclerc had started on intermediates, it's difficult to envision them being able to pass Verstappen given this balance of car characteristics. Leclerc probably wouldn't have ended up clipping Hulkenberg's Audi at Turn 2 on the opening lap, though.

"It's interesting here in Malaysia to see that the straightline speed advantage Mercedes had in Baku, we don't see it," mused McLaren boss Andrea Stella after qualifying. "It's kind of disappeared. The best performance in a straight line seems to be, by a decent margin, Red Bull. The best cornering performance is Ferrari. And we, McLaren, are also puzzled a little bit by the fact that in high speed, we are no longer the best car, like we seemed to be in Madrid, or we seemed to be in Zandvoort."

McLaren also had another puzzle to solve here in the form of Lando Norris once again suffering a bizarre lack of straightline speed compared with team-mate Oscar Piastri, something which could be aerodynamic or a factor of power unit installation. Anything to do with the latter is a subject the team always dances around, owing to reputational clauses enshrined in its supply contract.

"We need to understand the whole package, why we're quick, why we're maybe not so quick, and just take it step by step" Max Verstappen

Anyhow, as with Ferrari, McLaren didn’t have the race pace to stay with Verstappen even if it hadn't started Norris and Piastri on slicks. The safety car periods enabled them to mitigate the damage, and Hamilton and Leclerc were able to demote the struggling Hadjar in the final phase, but Piastri couldn't quite get there. Norris, meanwhile, briefly went off at Turn 1 and dropped out of the top 10 when he was caught out by the cars ahead braking as Russell’s car spluttered to a halt. He recovered to ninth but this was another nail in the coffin of his fading championship ambitions.

"I think last weekend we were quick in the corners, not quick on the straight compared to Mercedes," said Verstappen. "Now we're decent in the corners and quick on the straight, so we need to probably also sometimes just understand the whole package, why we're quick, why we're maybe not so quick, and just take it step by step every race."

As to the extent to which this resurgence is track-specific, we’ll just have to wait…

Can Red Bull carry its Sepang pace into Singapore?

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images