2021 Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[dans79]

Neither did Hamilton in Hungary, but he pressured Verstappen into burning his tires, which meant he could extract a pace advantage to force him to stay on the used rubber or giving up track position, Verstappen chose the latter. Verstappen needs to force Hamilton into a similar scenario to be able to pass on track. Or maybe he should have saved his attack for a lap later, who knows.

Hungary was a completely different scenario. Lewis Didn't pressure max into burning up his tires, they were both going to wear out their tires before the end of the race anyway as they where both doing a two stint race with an excessively long second stint. What Lewis did was manage to get close enough to Max to guarantee that he would undercut Max, if Max pitted on the following lap. Basically Lewis went on the attack and Max didn't respond fast enough, and that Let Lewis get into the undercut window.

[ispano6]

https://f1i.com/news/401186-perez-prese ... debut.html

Sergio Perez was almost one brilliant idea short of a nightmare debut with Red Bull when his car ground to a halt on the formation lap in Bahrain, but the team says the Mexican's "presence of mind" saved his day.

Perez qualified just outside the top ten and was ready to launch his race with the bit between his teeth when his RB16B completely shut down on the formation lap.

Perez was left stranded, watching the field flash by and unable to take any advice from his team over the radio, when he took the steering wheel off and put it on again.
...
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan praised Perez for his sense of initiative in the heat of the moment but also for the Mexican's outstanding race performance on Sunday.

"Before the race there was a small electrical fault," explained the British engineer. "We dealt with that. On the laps to the grid, no sign of any errors, the car behaved itself perfectly.

"On the formation lap he started to have some difficulties. There’s been a cut-out on the car which protects it.

"The thing’s lost all its electrical power, Checo has the presence of mind, like your laptop’s gone wrong, switch it off and switch it on again.

"The steering wheel burst back into life, he starts the engine, gets round, comes through the pit lane, waits for everybody else to form themselves up, and starts from the pit lane.

"As is often the case with these sorts of intermittent faults, the car then runs faultlessly for the race of course, which is just entertainment now.

Reminds me of Webber and his Red Bull. Get that software looked at and that glitch resolved.

[Kingshark]

At Brazil 2019, Red Bull pitted Verstappen right after Mercedes pitted Red Bull, even though Hamilton had completed the undercut on Verstappen.

What changed since then? Why did they suddenly decided to let Max stay out forever in Bahrain?

I honestly think that the best strategic decision would have been to accept that Lewis got the undercut and pit Max the following lap anyway. Then Max would be only a few seconds behind Lewis for the second stint, and the undercut option for the second pit stop would be possible.

[dxpetrov]

Easy answer. They didn’t have enough hard tires to do what Mercs were doing. They had to extend the life of mids to maximum in order to do 2 stints and they didn’t expect Mercedes would do only 2 stops on such short first 2 stints.
Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

[MKlaus]

At Brazil 2019, Red Bull pitted Verstappen right after Mercedes pitted Red Bull, even though Hamilton had completed the undercut on Verstappen.

What changed since then? Why did they suddenly decided to let Max stay out forever in Bahrain?

I honestly think that the best strategic decision would have been to accept that Lewis got the undercut and pit Max the following lap anyway. Then Max would be only a few seconds behind Lewis for the second stint, and the undercut option for the second pit stop would be possible.

one of the headaches of being in the position of "something to lose" because you are ahead, is the ability to take risks goes down. in the past, red bull had nothing to lose and could have done various things to win, which is exactly what mercedes tried in bahrain due to the competitive situation being reverse now. so it's obvious that red bull strategists felt the pressure of trying to safe guard their position and couldn't be aggressive like in the past. strategic calls are not always easy, it's damn if you do and damn if you don't.

[Kingshark]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

[tsam727]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

On point 2 Bottas only matched Hamilton's race pace because Hamilton was conserving his tyres for when Verstappen attacked him at the end. And Hamilton was defending for the last 10 laps, while Bottas was alone on track.

[Juzh]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

I agree.
Mercedes was fastest car on sunday when looking at data, and also when looking at first sting it was clear verstappen can't pull away from hamilton:
https://f1bythenumbers.com/2021-bahrain-gp-race-pace/

Data already excludes all outlier laps. that includes laps behind SC, inlaps, outlaps..
Bottas' average pace was 0.05s off hamilton, and both are faster than Verstappen. Bottas has that fastest lap that makes him look a bit better, but he also had some laps behind leclerc at the start.

[tsam727]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

I agree.
Mercedes was fastest car on sunday when looking at data, and also when looking at first sting it was clear verstappen can't pull away from hamilton:
https://f1bythenumbers.com/2021-bahrain-gp-race-pace/
https://f1bythenumbers.com/wp-content/u ... top_10.png
Data already excludes all outlier laps. that includes laps behind SC, inlaps, outlaps..
Bottas' average pace was 0.05s off hamilton, and both are faster than Verstappen. Bottas has that fastest lap that makes him look a bit better, but he also had some laps behind leclerc at the start.

Verstappen was behind Hamilton for the last 10 laps and wasn't able to utilize the maximum from the Red Bull whilst Bottas was in free air.
Conversely, considering Perez was running in traffic the entire race and was only 6 tenths off Hamilton shows how strong the Red Bull is.

[etusch]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

6 or 8 sec gap closed in about 10 laps, Verstappen was thinking he can pull away to gain more than 5 sec gap and cars are equal. Very good thinking. I wonder when you will accept the case ?

[dxpetrov]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

I agree.
Mercedes was fastest car on sunday when looking at data, and also when looking at first sting it was clear verstappen can't pull away from hamilton:
https://f1bythenumbers.com/2021-bahrain-gp-race-pace/
https://f1bythenumbers.com/wp-content/u ... top_10.png
Data already excludes all outlier laps. that includes laps behind SC, inlaps, outlaps..
Bottas' average pace was 0.05s off hamilton, and both are faster than Verstappen. Bottas has that fastest lap that makes him look a bit better, but he also had some laps behind leclerc at the start.

This is flawed, as it includes the laps Max was stuck behind Lewis. I he managed to pass him, he would have made up the pace deficit as the percentage would have turned into his benefit.

[Juzh]

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

I agree.
Mercedes was fastest car on sunday when looking at data, and also when looking at first sting it was clear verstappen can't pull away from hamilton:
https://f1bythenumbers.com/2021-bahrain-gp-race-pace/
https://f1bythenumbers.com/wp-content/u ... top_10.png
Data already excludes all outlier laps. that includes laps behind SC, inlaps, outlaps..
Bottas' average pace was 0.05s off hamilton, and both are faster than Verstappen. Bottas has that fastest lap that makes him look a bit better, but he also had some laps behind leclerc at the start.

This is flawed, as it includes the laps Max was stuck behind Lewis. I he managed to pass him, he would have made up the pace deficit as the percentage would have turned into his benefit.

This is neutralised at least partially by hamilton being stuck behind verstappen at 1.3-1.7s gap in entire first stint.

[Juzh]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

6 or 8 sec gap closed in about 10 laps, Verstappen was thinking he can pull away to gain more than 5 sec gap and cars are equal. Very good thinking. I wonder when you will accept the case ?

With a tyre offset of 11 laps It took verstappen 10 laps to go from 8.7s down to 1.4s deficit, so around 7 tenths per lap advantage. I don't really see how he was gonna make 5 seconds in 3 and a half laps that remained after initial overtake. Yes, he says "easily", but I'm sceptical.

[dans79]

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

6 or 8 sec gap closed in about 10 laps, Verstappen was thinking he can pull away to gain more than 5 sec gap and cars are equal. Very good thinking. I wonder when you will accept the case ?

With a tyre offset of 11 laps It took verstappen 10 laps to go from 8.7s down to 1.4s deficit, so around 7 tenths per lap advantage. I don't really see how he was gonna make 5 seconds in 3 and a half laps that remained after initial overtake. Yes, he says "easily", but I'm sceptical.

Yeah, Max was simply wrong because he was worked up!

[Sieper]

Anyways, at the end, none of that matters. They had the faster car and Max should have passed Lewis when he could. Whole team had equal blame for not winning.

Not convinced by this at all.

1. The diff problem was causing accelerated rear tyre wear for Verstappen
2. Bottas matching Hamilton’s race pace suggests that Hamilton wasn’t doing anything special

The cars were equal on Sunday

6 or 8 sec gap closed in about 10 laps, Verstappen was thinking he can pull away to gain more than 5 sec gap and cars are equal. Very good thinking. I wonder when you will accept the case ?

By the end max had a tire advantage. But I don’t think even 5 seconds, that was just the frustration speaking. He closed the gap with less then (just) 0.5 second per lap over the past 3 laps when he caught Lewis.

Max did the the one and only right thing, give the position back without hindering Lewis. That he spoke about taking a penalty was stupid but actions speak louder then words.