What created confusion in Red Bull’s F1 chase pack

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Two races ago, Max Verstappen’s margin of victory in Canada was a season-low 9.5 seconds over Aston’s Fernando Alonso (except for the Australian race that ended in the safety car), while Lewis Hamilton chased home the Red Bull in Spain.

Last time out in Austria, Ferrari was the closest contender up front for the currently dominant Formula 1 team – albeit set to finish north 24 seconds behind with Charles Leclerc before a late third pitstop for Verstappen.

Speaking after the race at the Red Bull Ring, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said “we don’t know” why there have been so many recent fluctuations in race speed between the three teams involved, adding that “the only really stable factor is Max because even within Red Bull, Sergio [Perez] He has these ups and downs and it’s not easy to understand.”

Speaking at Silverstone ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Alonso was similarly baffled, but posited the different track types – Barcelona is a high-speed, smooth place compared to Montreal’s near-street layout and Austria is between the two. Fast turns and hard curbs – can give an explanation.

“We were slower than the Montreal, no doubt,” Alonso said of Aston’s pace in Austria, where he finished fifth and ninth to Spaniard and team mate Lance Stroll.

Spain has also been a bit off their pace. So yeah, it’s something we’d like to understand. And everybody likes to understand.

“I think in Spain Mercedes were clearly the second fastest team and they were challenging Red Bull in a way, coming very close to Red Bull.

“In Canada Aston Martin was second fastest and we were challenging Max in a way. Then in Austria it was a Ferrari.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Sports Pictures

“So, in the last few races we’ve seen very different results for Mercedes, Ferrari and Aston, and we need to understand that clearly to avoid those weaknesses and bad weekends.

But, for now, we don’t have a clear answer. I think it’s tracking specific [thing]. It’s something we’re still investigating.”

Meanwhile, Russell pointed to the dark art of perfecting Formula 1 tires as the explanation – a problem complicated by temperature changes in different weather conditions across sessions in the past three events.

“Among all the teams I’ve seen huge fluctuations in performance this year, week in and week out,” said Russell.

“Even Red Bull to a degree – they have weeks when they finish in the 40s ahead of them and then weeks where they only have 15-20 seconds to go. So, they still have their ups and downs.

“A lot of it comes down to the tyres. The tyres are really sensitive – really hard to get through the window.

“But, I’m confident that this will be a better weekend than the last [for Mercedes]. “

Russell also stated that having to compromise ideal ride heights with ground effect cars could be another reason why teams find it difficult to replicate the format on different tracks, as “you can’t get the car in the right window for every type of angle”.

He added: “I’m sure that’s a possible factor.

“If teams develop their cars in different windows, if you develop a little bit higher elevation or a little bit lower elevations, there’s only [so much to be done for different layouts].

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures

So, maybe that is a reason for the volatility. We don’t really have answers yet as to why that is.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves trying to make our car faster over the course of the season. But yeah, it’s a challenge.”

Verstappen believes “it just depends a little bit on the track layout too sometimes”, while explaining that from a Red Bull perspective the gap in the field appears to depend more on whether or not their setup window is nailed – something that could also be a limitation for Aston, Ferrari and Mercedes. .

“When you have a very difficult weekend with rain, and then it’s sunny, it’s dry, you don’t have a lot of information,” Verstappen added. “Sometimes it’s more of a hit or miss.

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So, sometimes the results are a little misleading in terms of gap. Because sometimes you make your setup a little bit better than other weekends.

“Maybe we were in a good window in Austria, maybe there are not so many other teams, then the gap is a little bit bigger.

“In Montreal it was very close. But then we were a little off.”

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble

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