Red Bull Austria Problems
Red Bull Austria Problems
Red Bull was looking to give their home fans a show coming into the Austrian Grand Prix. But what was supposed to be a weekend to remember for every Red Bull fan that came to the race, went home in disappointment as the team would only get a P2 finish from fan-favorite Max Verstappen, while Sergio Perez was forced to retire after making contact with Mercedes driver George Russell.
And that isn’t the only worrying thing that happened this past weekend for Red Bull, at times that Max was supposed to defend against Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, the Dutch driver would seemingly be helpless and not put up a fight against Charles.
So, what problems did Red Bull face in Austria? Do they have a quick solution for it? Or will this be something to keep an eye on? Well, you’re going to have to stick around to find out. But before we get going, consider subscribing as we upload 4 videos a week just to keep you updated on the latest happenings in the F1 space.
Throughout the race, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen would be heard on multiple occasions complaining about the massive and rapid pace his tires were degrading. While the track temperatures and smoothness could be blamed on most tracks, especially street circuits. That would not be the case at the Red Bull ring as it is designed to be a race track and not a set of city streets that is made into a race track. This very reason has baffled Red Bull’s head of driver development Helmut Marko saying:
“It was very strange. The first three sets of tyres we had an incredible amount of wear. We couldn’t explain that. And then the funny thing was on that last set of tyres we were fast again. There was nothing wrong with the car, but with the tyres and in particular their excessive temperature.”
Team boss Christian Horner would also be left baffled about the team’s tire degradation on Sunday’s race when during the Sprint race on Saturday, the team was looked pretty decent. In his words:
“It was strange. Just one week ago at Silverstone we looked pretty decent on deg. I think the problem is these tyres are quite sensitive and, if you’re not in the right window with them, then you can pay a penalty in terms of degradation, which a lot of teams did. When you look at the sprint race, we pushed a bit harder at the beginning, paid a little bit at the end, but over the whole stint on our analysis, we were identical to that of Ferrari,” he said. The only thing that’s changed overnight is the rain, the temperature slightly and of course the fuel loads. So we just need to understand why, in that first stint, our deg was significantly worse than Charles and Carlos.”
And while Christian Horner thinks that the problem may be an internal issue, Ferrari’s team boss Mattia Binotto believes that the excessive tire degradation Max experienced during the race was because Charles was a lot closer to him on Sunday, thus putting more pressure on Max meaning that he was not able to manage his tires as much as he would have liked. In his words:
We forced him to have more pace and degrade more the tyres. So I think what we saw in the sprint was more obvious [in the race] because of more pressure on Max.”
Speaking of Max, the Dutch driver would also admit that he underestimated Ferrari coming into Austria saying:
“I expected them to be strong, I just didn’t expect them to be this good. And I think we were just a bit down on what we expected. It was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be. Basically, on any tyre I was just struggling a lot for pace after a few laps, just a lot of deg. It’s something I can’t really explain right now, why it was so high, because I think normally we are quite okay on the tyres. I expected it to be tough but I didn’t expect it to be like this. So it’s just something we need to analyse and understand why this happened. Even on a bad day, let’s say an off day, to only lose five points over the whole weekend is I think still good.
And it seems as though Max wasn’t the only one in the team that didn’t think of Ferrari as much of a threat coming into Austria as Helmut Marko would also tell the media that Charles’s win came as a surprise to him also. In his words:
“[Leclerc’s win] came as a surprise. We had severe tyre degradation that we cannot explain. Our pace and the wear on the last set of tyres were all the more astonishing. hope we can work that out but we limited the damage at least. Ferrari and we are at more or less the same level all year round. It’s about the little things. So we’re not worried. It’s not like we’re suddenly losing the championship here. We were just a bit too slow today, we were doing the best we could with the strategy but the Ferraris were extremely fast. Of course, we need to understand why we had so much degradation with the tyres. I’m not sure exactly what happened, no matter which compound we used none of them seemed to work well.”
So the recurring statement amongst everyone up until now is the tire degradation, but what caused it is the next question? Former F1 driver Jan Lammers believes he knows why. He would go on to say in a podcast episode of NOS:
“It is a sprint race weekend. You have a Friday morning where you have a lot to do, there are formalities to tick off. The second practice session is also qualifying. Then you can’t sort anything out.”
Lammers then goes on to explaine that the training session the next day before the sprint race does give some time to practice long runs, but that time is mainly used in preparation for the sprint race in the afternoon. Lammer would then conclude that the teams are missing a crucial amount of data because of this saying:
“I’m not so convinced by those comments that Pirelli is always wrong,” says Lammers. That is not the case. I never see people just doing what Pirelli says.”
Lammers then goes on to describe the race as a moving target which makes it difficult for Pirelli to accurately predict. And to add onto that, Lammers goes on to say that Pirelli’s predictions do not include yellow or red flags and safety cars. So it would not be ideal for teams to rely on the data that Pirelli gives them. Lammers would end his rant putting blame on teams and on this case Red Bull, for not going beyond what Pirelli tells them. In his words:
They got into the situation where they weren’t going to make it in the normal way anymore. So they changed the strategy. If it was one long race, I am convinced that a one-stop with a yellow tyre and a white tyre was just a fine strategy.”
While that is one possible cause to Red Bull’s problems this past Sunday, another cause experts are saying is that it could be due to the RB18 being overweight.
According to Andrew Hup of Auto Motor und Sport, while the RB18 may be the most upgraded car on the grid. These advancements made by the team has come at the cost of it being significantly heavier than most cars on the grid. It has been reported that the RB18 is 10kgs heavier than the minimum weight which would be 808kgs to be exact.
And while their arch rivals Ferrari, are on the dot and are sitting at 798kgs. Of the 2 reasons that I have discussed, this seems to be the more plausible one as we can go back to after the Canadian Grand Prix where Helmut Marko could be quoted that the RB18 is on a diet and trying to lose excessive weight. In his words:
“Our car is still overweight. That’s the negative. The positive is that if we manage to lose more weight, we will gain a lot of time. But it’s a process that takes time. Let’s say today the positive aspect is we will gain a few tenths when we reach the target. Are we five kilos short? Let’s say it’s not such a wrong assumption. I think Ferrari are at the [weight] limit, while Mercedes should be in line [with our situation].
And as we see now that both Ferrari and Mercedes are steadily gaining on Red Bull in terms of podium finished and wins, Red Bull may have to act quickly if they think the weight of the RB18 is the root cause for their excessive tire degradation this past weekend in Austria. And there you have it guys? So what do you think?
Is the RB18’s weight the root cause for the team’s troubles this past weekend? Or was it a case of lack of preparation and strategy because they were feeling too confident of their lead in both the championships? Do you think this will be a recurring problem for the team or will this be a one time thing? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
