2023 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Wouter]

The Dutchman's dominance was such that he soon joked with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase about making an extra pitstop for the fastest lap to give his crew "some extra pitstop training".

While that comment could have been taken for complacency, team principal Horner quickly shot down the idea of making an extra stop, which Verstappen last did at the Austrian Grand Prix.

When asked by Autosport if there were any concerns over Verstappen's flippant radio messages, Horner said:
"No, that's why we didn't take the stop.

"We didn't want to get too greedy, because we won the sprint race yesterday, a 1-2 finish today, we didn't want to end up
with egg on our face, compromising that in any way.

"To give away one point, I don't think anybody will lose too much sleep over it tonight."

Red Bull's approach of not taking any unnecessary risks was fed by concerns over tyre degradation after Verstappen stressed
the soft tyres at the start of his stint more than his engineer was comfortable with.

"We got a little worried that the tyres - you could see they were starting to open up a bit - and we didn't want
to get into too much depth," Horner explained. "So, it was about just closing out the race."

[Curbstone]

I was a bit surprised by the 'difficulty' of passing Lewis. While Lewis was in DRS-range of Leclerc, Verstappen couldn't get close enough for a attempt to pass. Even though he had DRS, and a double sliptream.
It's wasn't until Lewis lost DRS that Verstappen could make the pass. So it seems true the currently the DRS-effect of the Red Bull isn't as powerfull as is was.

[SiLo]

I was a bit surprised by the 'difficulty' of passing Lewis. While Lewis was in DRS-range of Leclerc, Verstappen couldn't get close enough for a attempt to pass. Even though he had DRS, and a double sliptream.
It's wasn't until Lewis lost DRS that Verstappen could make the pass. So it seems true the currently the DRS-effect of the Red Bull isn't as powerfull as is was.

Lewis was running very little wing to be fair, and with DRS was quick on the straights.

[chrisc90]

More impressed that Charles Managed to hold Lewis back with DRS. No idea how he managed that. Probably one of the few who couldn’t pass down there with drs

[Willy]

More impressed that Charles Managed to hold Lewis back with DRS. No idea how he managed that. Probably one of the few who couldn’t pass down there w ith drs

Ferrari now has good engine power. Something they were struggling due to reliability. Their recent fixes has made the car better on tyres. They were definitely faster than Mercedes at Spa. Mercedes having intrudced bouncing didn't help them on straights.

[marcel171281]

I was a bit surprised by the 'difficulty' of passing Lewis. While Lewis was in DRS-range of Leclerc, Verstappen couldn't get close enough for a attempt to pass. Even though he had DRS, and a double sliptream.
It's wasn't until Lewis lost DRS that Verstappen could make the pass. So it seems true the currently the DRS-effect of the Red Bull isn't as powerfull as is was.

Verstappen wasn't even attempting to pass at that stage. He opened the DRS, but didn't use any ERS setting to help him, he just waited for Hamilton to drop out of the DRS. At the first possible opportunity he used DRS and the overtake button to make an easy pass.

Why take the risk going side by side into Les Combes with Hamilton, probably on the outside, while you know there are plenty of oppertunities coming?

[Cs98]

I was a bit surprised by the 'difficulty' of passing Lewis. While Lewis was in DRS-range of Leclerc, Verstappen couldn't get close enough for a attempt to pass. Even though he had DRS, and a double sliptream.
It's wasn't until Lewis lost DRS that Verstappen could make the pass. So it seems true the currently the DRS-effect of the Red Bull isn't as powerfull as is was.

RB were running more wing than Hamilton and were still 5 kph faster in the speed trap during quali. The DRS advantage is alive and well. It was a silly rumour started by Lewis. God knows why.

[Logie]

Went to the SPA race, the Red Bull runs so much lower then the other cars. Watching the cars go through Eau Rogue, the RB was the only cars that sparked nearly all the way and alot of sparks too.

Even on the formation lap.

Deffo got something trick/special on this car love to know what, to run so low with 0 bouncing and not having a car so stiff is something

[organic]

This is a very thorough and in-depth analysis of RB's interesting telemetry in the race at Spa.

It was noted at the time by some here that RB were lifting off massively through eau rouge in the race. Some suggested tyre management or sandbagging, but Brrrrake puts forward a more compelling theory that is backed up by some of Perez's post-race comments

This theory also explains GP's constant "use your head" radio messages to Max which were unusual and the end of stint 1 radio of Max urging GP to ensure Perez is "also doing it".

Brrrrake suggests the lifting off through eau rouge was related to management of a possible plank wear issue brought on by a setup compromise made on Friday to make sure the car would work at both wet and dry ride heights (the tread of the tyres lifts the car); ie they ran the car lower than they would've liked if they knew it would be dry.

Various observers (including a few people I know who were at the race on the new grandstand) observed that RB were grounding through eau rouge far more than any other team, whilst Merc was the only other team sparking through there.

I think this theory is the most likely answer to why RB gave up half a second down the straight each lap rather than tyre save somewhere in S2 as they normally do

[chrisc90]

Super interesting!

It does make sense that they might have run the car marginally too low or predicted a wet race so accounted for slightly larger tyres.

Crazy to think there was so much more lap time in the car, given they were on average a second a lap faster overall by losing half a second through eau rouge and kennel straight!

[Juzh]

Crazy to think there was so much more lap time in the car, given they were on average a second a lap faster overall by losing half a second through eau rouge and kennel straight!

You have to assume this on the limit setup is giving them laptime elsewhere around the lap. I don't think they're losing half a second all things considered.

[chrisc90]

Crazy to think there was so much more lap time in the car, given they were on average a second a lap faster overall by losing half a second through eau rouge and kennel straight!

You have to assume this on the limit setup is giving them laptime elsewhere around the lap. I don't think they're losing half a second all things considered.

Surely easy way to work that out is look at the laps where he was flat through eau rouge and see what the difference he lost/gained on himself by lifting and going flat.
Fairly easy comparison.

[dans79]

Surely easy way to work that out is look at the laps where he was flat through eau rouge and see what the difference he lost/gained on himself by lifting and going flat.
Fairly easy comparison.

it's not nearly that simple. The rb-19 and every other car on the grid would have been set-up differently.

[chrisc90]

Surely easy way to work that out is look at the laps where he was flat through eau rouge and see what the difference he lost/gained on himself by lifting and going flat.
Fairly easy comparison.

it's not nearly that simple. The rb-19 and every other car on the grid would have been set-up differently.

I’m on about how much laptime the RB was losing relative to themselves (and others) just through the first sector alone.
If what you say is true, it would be impossible to compare race pace between teams. There are countless examples of that each week. How much time RB chose to drop through eau rouge, whether it be down to accidentally running a couple mm’s too low or any other reason is easy to work out.
I’m certain there will be 1 lap where either RB went flat through eau rouge/kennel straight in the each race window that the lad mentions in the video. Compare the delta to that lap where they were flat and one with lifting and see what they lost.
He says they were dropping half a second to the likes of Hamilton and leclerc whisky lifting. Reverse the question and ask how much time would they have gained by going flat out.

[dans79]

He says they were dropping half a second to the likes of Hamilton and leclerc whisky lifting. Reverse the question and ask how much time would they have gained by going flat out.

The point is unless you have several consecutive laps (5or 6 plus) of "flat out" you can't account for enough variables to make a reasonable estimate.

for example was the flay out lap:

[*] a lap time that the tires could handle for several consecutive laps
[*] a lap time that wouldn't deplete the pack after a few laps
[*] at a fuel burn rate that was sustainable till the end of the race.
[*] etc etc

The above are why you see people who compare race/long run pace look at stints of several consecutive laps.