Max Verstappen, who was forced to retire last Sunday’s Formula 1 Grand Prix in Bahrain, is already worried about the points Red Bull Racing has lost in the F1 title race.

Starting just behind poleman Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen had the ambition to start this Formula 1 season strongly. The world champion was expected to make a positive start to the season and he did so for the first 56 laps, before his car failed him. As a result, Max Verstappen had to retire, as did Sergio Pérez, his team-mate at RedBull. It was a catastrophic result for the Austrian team.

“These are very important points”

“You could see at the first corner after the start that I didn’t take too many risks. It was the same when I was fighting with Charles, everything was clean and I would have been happy with a second place.

“But to lose so many points for the team is really disappointing because for the championship, where sometimes it can be really tight until the end, these are very important points”, lamented Max Verstappen in comments reported by Nextgen Auto.

The Dutchman will have to react quickly, otherwise rivals will take the lead in the standings and one wonders if the surprisingly ‘measured’ Verstappen will soon ditch that style of racing, as hinted during the radio broadcast to his team. The Red Bull driver certainly sounded incredibly frustrated with the how far behind Leclerc he was after the second round of pit stops. Verstappen attempted to undercut race leader Charles Leclerc, whilst also trying to preserve the condition of his tyres by not attacking his outlap after pitting.

With no dive bombing down the inside of Leclerc, and this measured outlap rather than all out attack, then result being a DNF and zero points. Could we see a return of ‘Mad Max’ in Saudi Arabia next race?