Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda were waiting for the green light at their first pit stops in Bahrain, but it never came – Red Bull is investigating the problem
When things don’t go well, they go really badly. In addition to Red Bull’s already poor pace in Bahrain, there was a problem with the pit equipment on Sunday that cost Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda further valuable seconds.
Verstappen’s first pit stop on lap 11 lasted 4.7 seconds – too long in the tightly packed front midfield. But Red Bull had no problems with the tire change; instead, Verstappen simply did not drive off after his pit stop was completed.
The reason for this: the pit stop lights had not given the Dutchman the go-ahead. Verstappen instinctively wanted to drive off after being tapped on the shoulder, but stopped again due to the red light above him. It was only with a delay that the world champion was able to get going.
“Max came in for his first stop and the light didn’t go off,” said team principal Christian Horner. ‘The system is actually very simple. At first we thought maybe one of the mechanics hadn’t pressed the button hard enough.’
LAP 27/57
Verstappen is having a difficult race. He pits for the second time this evening. His first stop was slow and so is this one.
He comes back out in last place but he’s already making up ground F1 BahrainGP pic. twitter.com/0CxUN9CwCj
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 13, 2025
Just one lap later, exactly the same thing happened to Yuki Tsunoda. The lights didn’t turn green for the Japanese driver either, causing him to lose valuable time in the pits. “The actual stops were actually good,” says Horner. “One was a two-second stop, but the driver was waiting for the green light, which just didn’t come.”
Because there were more pit stops to come later in the race, Red Bull had to come up with an interim solution: “From that moment on, we went to manual override, and the lead mechanic released the car by hand signal,” says Horner.
Red Bull has yet to investigate exactly what led to the difficulties. According to an initial analysis, it was a “problem with the wiring or an electrical problem with the pit lights” – whether this was related to the general problems over the weekend is also not yet known.
“In any case, I have never experienced anything like this before,” says Horner. ‘The drivers rely completely on these lights. And now everything is under quarantine, and we will analyze this carefully.’
