2021 Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Juzh]

How can these kind of little issues only come up on lap 1 of the race, but not during 3 days of testing, free practice and qualifying? Amazing.

Max lost quite a lot in the mini sectors due to the differential issue. Was also clear to see him struggle out of the corners.

Yeah I had his onboard open trough the race. It sounded something like a slipping clutch would and this definitely cost laptime. His engineer confirmed the problem during VSC and that they would simply have to control it. He changed some diff settings and then reported it got better.

I also noticed car was understeering like a pig in first stint, and sometimes oversteering in T13. Probably why he couldn't fend of Hamilton.

[ivanlesk]

From the race directors notes about track limits during the race:

21.2 Race
a) The track limits at the exit of Turn 4 will not be monitored with regard to setting a lap time, as
the defining limits are the artificial grass and the gravel trap in that location.

Huh??

Max was ahead in the corner before he left the track, with no where else to go. Replays from different angles show him ahead of Lewis, Red Bull should have argued for a proper review before ceding so quickly. Race control seemed awfully quick to decide that Max had made the pass while off track.

Max himself did not dispute that that was illegal move.

[Sieper]

Of course not. Nobody is. He had to go round the outside as Giovinazzi was there. And he just didn’t have the tires anymore. He had about 0,5 secs of pace difference left. Just missed out here. Hard to swallow but a tense race which saw Mercedes dig deep. Hopefully RBR can get on top of the reliability issues quick.

[ivanlesk]

Btw, if you check Max onboard camera, he left track in turn 4 in one of opening laps. Any comment on that?

At least 7 times I've seen Ham doing off track at turn 4? And then who got punished is...? Any comments??

No one got punished. ?!? Max completed pass illegally and would be punished if he did that in any corner. At least that is consistent rule. Max also didn't dispute it.

Is ok for Max to do it, and it is not for Lewis to do it?
Let se next time when Max leaves track - what you gona do then?

[Sieper]

Lewis did it 29 times:



That certainly took just enough out of Max tires not to be able to catch Lewis (with enough advantage) anymore. The outlap in particular was a blatant infringement. Stewards should have actioned on it but chose not to.

[zibby43]

Apologies if this had already been posted. From the Race Director’s Notes this weekend:

21) Track Limits

21.1 Practice Sessions
a) A lap time achieved during any practice session by leaving the track and cutting behind the red and white kerb on the exit of Turn 4, will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards.

21.2 Race
a) The track limits at the exit of Turn 4 will not be monitored with regard to setting a lap time, as the defining limits are the artificial grass and the gravel trap in that location.

b) In all cases during the race, Drivers are reminded of the provisions of Article 27.3 of the Sporting Regulations.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... on_2_0.pdf

[Pany]

Did not think so many times.... mercedes era is destroying this sport. I will not pay again sky sport this year, as i did not last year. Please join me.

Lewis did it 29 times:



That certainly took just enough out of Max tires not to be able to catch Lewis (with enough advantage) anymore. The outlap in particular was a blatant infringement. Stewards should have actioned on it but chose not to.

[wowgr8]

Look, it's obvious the RBR is faster than the Mercedes. Hamilton banked on track position, and Verstappen waited too long to switch to the hards. About 3 laps too long. Had Perez not shortened the race by 1 lap, and Mazepin not causing the safety car, Verstappen would have had enough laps to make the pass stick. He got too carried away.

We let Hamilton not only get track position on us, but we let him build a gap because we stayed out a few too many laps on the aging mediums. I imagine there's some learning curve with these new tires as they have only just been used in race conditions.

Still, no excuses, we lost even though we have the better driver and the faster car, we got beat by strategy. Verstappen was too eager to pass Hamilton, and that cost him the race.

Now know despite the small advantage here that advantage is not guaranteed to last all season, and even if the car is faster and you think it will be boring to just parade at the front, it doesn't matter, you have to do everything possible to win because Hamilton will do everything in his power to beat you and he's not that far behind.

If the Red Bull is faster (I'm not sure, I thought they were even in the race today) the Mercedes is still a lot kinder on its tyres, they've had this characteristic since 2019 (remember Hamilton's win in Mexico)

I think Red Bull's strategy was absolutely perfect today, they couldn't have extended the final stint too much because then he has no tyres left when he catches Lewis up, the timing of the stops was perfect, that moment just lost them the whole thing. I don't know how or where to apportion blame, Max was right to go for the move but Hamilton was also right to shut the door, Max and Red Bull should learn from this, this is where Hamilton and his title fight experience (as well as unbelievable talent) makes the difference

Now all RB should do is sit tight and pray that Mercedes problems carry on into Imola and are not solved or weren't track specific to Bahrain like Toto said they were

[Revs84]

What happened today is a clear robbery. The stewards had made it clear earlier in the weekend that drivers should respect track limits in turn 4 and indeed, they enforced up until the race.

Except when Mercedes decided they'll make up for the lack of pace by going off track several times during the race.

Red Bull only started doing it later in the race when the stewards didn't give a warning to Mercedes. What's good for the goose is good for the gender no?

Yet lo and behold, few laps after Red Bull started exploiting that corner, the stewards started warning teams. What about the-long lasting advantage that Mercedes had gained by gaining several seconds throughout the race?

If the stewards were to be fair, they would hand out post race penalties to everyone who abused turn 4 in relation to the amount of times it was used.

But we all know that will not happen right?

In any case, I still think Max did the right thing giving the place back. If Mercedes want to play dirty, let them do it on their own. Red Bull should still look at beating Mercedes fair and square.

They are still in a great position for the rest of the season to do so. However, they'll need to do a lot of homework, as there were still a lot of weaknesses coming out today.

- Honda need to sort out their gremlins that caused them to change the components on various cars. That could have stopped Max completely today.
- Red Bull need to sort out a few gremlins for themselves with the diff issue and the poor (in my opinion) reaction to Mercedes' strategy.
- Max needs to become less eager in fighting for position. On pure talent and raw pace, I firmly believe Max has the upper hand. But Hamilton is a crafty old fox and he will pull out all his experience to win his 8th driver championship.

There's 3 weeks now for the next race, so it's now time to regroup, learn from their mistakes and come stronger in the next race.

[Marti_EF3]

Btw, if you check Max onboard camera, he left track in turn 4 in one of opening laps. Any comment on that?

At least 7 times I've seen Ham doing off track at turn 4? And then who got punished is...? Any comments??

No one got punished. ?!? Max completed pass illegally and would be punished if he did that in any corner. At least that is consistent rule. Max also didn't dispute it.

Is ok for Max to do it, and it is not for Lewis to do it?
Let se next time when Max leaves track - what you gona do then?

Go and see Sieper video. If you get punished for overtaking off track, ok. But then you gain time using that 29 times and you don't get a penalty? That's ridiculous

[ivanlesk]

How meny times di Max do it also?

[Revs84]

How meny times di Max do it also?

That corner can easily gain you 1 to 2 tenths. Now go back and calculate how many times each of them did it and let us know of the result.

[Marti_EF3]

You keep discusing something you can't defend. Max was told to do the same because Ham was doing it, and no warnings. But then when Max started to do it, there we go with the warnings. Do you see where the inconsistence is? Max got punished for it, but Lewis using it during all race escaped free of it. What are you trying to defend? It's clear that FIA changed their mind during the race, and that is not fair. Because with the amount of times Lewis went off track before Max was told to do, he should have been punished too.

[Just_a_fan]

Apologies if this had already been posted. From the Race Director’s Notes this weekend:

21) Track Limits

21.1 Practice Sessions
a) A lap time achieved during any practice session by leaving the track and cutting behind the red and white kerb on the exit of Turn 4, will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards.

21.2 Race
a) The track limits at the exit of Turn 4 will not be monitored with regard to setting a lap time, as the defining limits are the artificial grass and the gravel trap in that location.

b) In all cases during the race, Drivers are reminded of the provisions of Article 27.3 of the Sporting Regulations.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... on_2_0.pdf

Relevant part of 27.3 that applies here:

Should a car leave the track the driver may re-join, however, this may only be done when it is
safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage. At the absolute discretion of the race
director a driver may be given the opportunity to give back the whole of any advantage he
gained by leaving the track.

As the race director told Red Bull to give the place back, they considered it a "lasting advantage".

As they had specifically allowed cars to go beyond the white line at T4 during the race, Hamilton (and others) were doing nothing wrong in doing so. But overtaking off track is always a no-no.

[Revs84]

Apologies if this had already been posted. From the Race Director’s Notes this weekend:

21) Track Limits

21.1 Practice Sessions
a) A lap time achieved during any practice session by leaving the track and cutting behind the red and white kerb on the exit of Turn 4, will result in that lap time being invalidated by the stewards.

21.2 Race
a) The track limits at the exit of Turn 4 will not be monitored with regard to setting a lap time, as the defining limits are the artificial grass and the gravel trap in that location.

b) In all cases during the race, Drivers are reminded of the provisions of Article 27.3 of the Sporting Regulations.

https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files ... on_2_0.pdf

Relevant part of 27.3 that applies here:

Should a car leave the track the driver may re-join, however, this may only be done when it is
safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage. At the absolute discretion of the race
director a driver may be given the opportunity to give back the whole of any advantage he
gained by leaving the track.

As the race director told Red Bull to give the place back, they considered it a "lasting advantage".

As they had specifically allowed cars to go beyond the white line at T4 during the race, Hamilton (and others) were doing nothing wrong in doing so. But overtaking off track is always a no-no.

So what you are saying is that drivers can exceed track limits in each corner but not to overtake? That doesn't sound quite right does it?

The stewards had started enforcing track limits in turn 4 as the weekend progressed, seeing that several drivers were abusing it. Some drivers such as Ricciardo and Perez even got quali runs deleted because of that.

The problem is that the stewards have not been consistent. The Mercedes drivers should have been shown the black and white flag immediately. Yet they let them gain advantage until Red Bull chose to start exploiting the corner as well - given that they were losing time by following the rules.

So stating that you can exploit track limits to gain time but to not overtake is just not good enough. I want to see consistency, not selective ruling.