F1 2021
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1%er
Well-Known Member
Very interesting article by Mark Hughes (some analysis rather than gossip and whinging)
In the war of words between Christian Horner and Toto Wolff, a lot of water has been muddied in assessing the relative form of the Red Bull-Honda and Mercedes and what may be behind it. Let’s try to at least separate the propaganda from the data to see where the reality may lie. The backdrop to the most recent spat was Red Bull’s belief in Brazil that Mercedes was somehow getting around the rear wing flex regulations. The way it believed Mercedes was doing this was by allowing the underside of the wing out of sight of the rearward-facing cameras to flex beyond a certain load, lowering the drag. “If we see that wing here,” said Horner at the beginning of the Qatar weekend, “we will protest it.”The wing Mercedes has selected for this track looks identical to that of Brazil and Mercedes insists that’s because it is actually the very same wing. Yet there has been no Red Bull protest. Horner says that teams have been informed an experimental new FIA load test would be tried here after qualifying [albeit of no regulatory value], intimating Mercedes had anticipated this: “They’ve been pegged back,” as he put it. Red Bull believes that while the Mercedes wing here is architecturally the same as in Brazil, the underside is no longer flexing to the same extent. Technically, this would be feasible. The carbon lay-up of the wing underside could be denser at the outboard ends than in the middle, allowing it to deform under load. A wing with the same shape underside with a uniform carbon lay-up would look the same but not deform.
“I think their straightline speed has come down a bit,” said Horner after qualifying. “It looks very similar to our straightline speed now, which is good to see.”
It’s not a crazy theory, but do the performance patterns from the two events back it up? In Brazil qualifying, Hamilton was sixth-fastest across the start/finish line, 7.7km/h faster than 20th-fastest Verstappen. The fastest was Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, 4.1km/h faster than Hamilton. Tsunoda’s speed was flattered by a tow, but neither Hamilton nor Verstappen had tows on their best Interlagos laps, though obviously, both had use of DRS. In the race, when they were each in clear air and with no DRS, Verstappen was usually at or around 300km/h over the start/finish, with Hamilton on or around 305km/h. The speed difference was not outrageous.
In Qatar Hamilton is 13th-fastest through the speed trap, 3.4km/h faster than 19th-fastest Verstappen. Fastest by far through the trap are the cars which lack downforce – the Haas and Alfas. The fastest of the Q3-level cars through the trap is the Ferrari, at 4km/h faster than Hamilton. So, the gap between the speeds of the Mercedes and Red Bull has indeed reduced between Brazil and here but only by 0.7km/h, hardly anything. But the trap figures only tell part of the story. Comparing the speed profiles of the two cars throughout the straights gives a much fuller picture. Do this and in Brazil, Verstappen was losing 0.23s to the Mercedes on the straights throughout the lap (52.5% of the lap time deficit there). In Qatar, he is losing 0.25s on the straights (54.9% of the deficit). So the lap time advantage derived from the Merc’s greater straightline has actually increased slightly in Qatar, albeit by no more variance than is typical circuit-to-circuit. Furthermore, with a wing that Horner believes is now legal, Mercedes continues to be a very big chunk faster over the lap than the Red Bull.
After FP3, Red Bull unable to cure the oscillating DRS flap on a smaller wing (the one used in Brazil) moved to a higher downforce wing for qualifying. Using this wing, Red Bull lost that 0.23s on the straights but was 0.455s slower over the lap. So despite Red Bull’s increase in wing level, Mercedes took 0.225s out of Red Bull through the corners. When we look at that in detail we see the Red Bull’s loss is 0.1s in Turn4/5, half-a-tenth in Turn 6, 0.2s between Turns 7-10 and half-a-tenth between Turns 11-16. The Red Bull tends to be a more front-limited car than the Mercedes, which is more rear-limited by comparison. This generally reflects the differing aero balance and the way the two cars have to be set up to maximise their concepts. At front-limited tracks such as Hungaroring and Istanbul, the Red Bull tends to struggle. At rear-limited tracks such as Austin, the Mercedes is not at its best.
Coming into the Qatar weekend, the general expectation was that this track new to F1 would err towards being rear-limited. But as the weekend has progressed, it’s clear that it is actually front-limited, as Pirelli’s Mario Isola explains. “When I first saw the numbers yesterday [Friday] I assumed it was because teams were setting up their cars to protect the left-rear. But actually, that is not the case. After looking at it, it is genuinely the front-left which is taking the biggest strain. Some of these quick corners are loading the fronts up a lot but also there are quite a lot of points on the track where you are braking into the corner. This is very hard on the fronts.” The more the track has rubbered in, the more extreme this trait has become and the more it seems to have moved towards Mercedes as a result. Half of Merc’s big lap time advantage here is from a better balance than the Red Bull, half from the superior straightline.
Now, let’s look at how each car compares with the rest of the field at the different venues.
Red Bull average advantage over best non-Mercedes up to Mexico: 0.655%
Red Bull advantage over best non-Mercedes Brazil: 0.596%
Red Bull advantage over best non-Mercedes Qatar: 0.443%
Red Bull average over best non-Mercedes Brazil/Qatar combined: 0.519%
Red Bull 0.136% slower on average last two races relative to non-Mercedes.
Mercedes average advantage over best non-Red Bull up to Mexico: 0.693%
Mercedes advantage over best non-Red Bull Brazil: 1.24%
Mercedes advantage over best non-Red Bull Qatar: 1.006%
Mercedes advantage over best non-Red Bull Brazil/Qatar combined: 1.123%
Mercedes 0.43% faster on average last two races relative to non-Red Bull.
Mercedes advantage made a step-change over everyone between Mexico and Brazil. Red Bull at the same time became slower relative to the rest of the field. At both Interlagos and Qatar, it did not have the front end grip of its best tracks. The Mercedes advantage over the rest of the (non-Red Bull) field has reduced significantly here which is consistent with the lower power advantage now that Hamilton’s car is fitted with the Istanbul power unit (PU4) rather than the brand new power unit used in Brazil (PU5).
It really doesn’t seem to be much about flexible wings.
1%er
Well-Known Member
FIA make decision on Mercedes rear wing after new test & Red Bull concerns
Mercedes remain confident that their rear wing is completely legal after passing new tests introduced by the FIA at the Qatar Grand Prix, with Red Bull still suspicious about their title rivals. The two teams have been fighting tooth and nail since the beginning of the campaign and with two races left in the season, both championships are still firmly up for grabs. In the bid to get the edge over the other, as has been the case in Formula 1 for decades, points have been made over the legality of certain aspects of both cars over the course of 2021 and, most recently of all, it's the Mercedes' rear wing that has been in the spotlight. Red Bull, though stopping short at a formal protest thus far, appear fairly confident that the Mercedes rear wing flexes more than is allowed, allowing for greater straight-line speed as it reduces aerodynamic drag.The Silver Arrows, though, have regularly maintained their innocence and a new test at the Qatar GP, introduced by the FIA, looks to have been passed by the current champs. Two 35kg weights were hung at different points from the Mercedes rear-wing, to test the flex, and the team said it came through without issue, before popping a jab at Red Bull: “The wing was rock solid. You could have hung 100 kilos on it,” a source from the German team said. “Maybe Red Bull will ask for 105 kilograms next time.” Red Bull alleged that the rear wing they think is flouting the rules was changed to one that doesn't on Saturday before the test took place, something Mercedes have straight up denied. This test will now go ahead at the race weekends to come as we close in on the final events of the season so it appears this extra sub-plot still has legs yet.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Lewis Hamilton and title rival Max Verstappen sent FIA warning after recent disputes
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have been sent a warning by the FIA. F1's governing body have handed both drivers penalties in the last fortnight, which they both disagreed with. The Mercedes driver disagreed with their decision not to penalise the Dutchman for his move in during the Sao Paulo GP, which forced him off the track when trying to overtake. The Red Bull racer then claimed he gets “no presents” after he was given a five-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags during qualifying for the Qatar GP. In response to the driver’s grievances, the governing body’s director Michael Masi has stressed that the rules are 'clear' and that the FIA assess incidents on a case-by-case basis. “I think it's been made clear to them what is expected,' he said “I think some of them agree, some of them disagree. That's always with each and every one of them, they have agreed and disagreed all the way through. We've given them some overall guidance, but also been very clear on the fact that each and every case will be judged on its merits.”The decisions made by the FIA could have huge implications on the title race, but Masi explained he is not the only person who decides which punishments to hand out when matters are brought to the FIA’s attention. “We're not more relaxed,” he added. “We're looking at each and every incident on its merits as we have done with each and every one. There is a panel of independent stewards, contrary to what many people think, I'm not the one sitting there as judge and jury.” Also slapped with an FIA punishment was Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who was issued a warning by stewards for an alleged breach of 12.2.1 f and 12.2.1 of the international sporting code this past weekend. He was summoned to the stewards after suggesting one of the marshals wasn’t doing his job properly and labelled them a “rogue marshal," and was given a warning. “To be honest with you, we are really struggling to understand it. It looks like a complete balls-up,” Horner told Sky F1. “The FIA effectively said ‘play on’ on the circuit and it was safe and clear, and Max was in the beginning of the first sector so he had so much time to look at it. The dashboard on his steering wheel is indicating everything is fine, otherwise we would have informed him. Unfortunately, there’s a yellow flag and he just didn’t see it. I think it’s just a rogue marshal that stuck a flag out and he hasn’t been instructed to by the FIA. They’ve got to have control of their marshals. It’s as simple as that.”
Vertsappen carries a slender eight-point lead into the penultimate race of the season in Saudi Arabia. After a dominant victory at the Qatar GP on Sunday, Hamilton insisted there is time to rest on his laurels as he pursues a record 8th F1 world title. “There is no time to celebrate, no time to rest, we just keep our heads down and keep racing,” he said. “This past three weeks have been so difficult for everyone with such big distances between the races. Of course the race was made a lot easier with the penalties that the guys received for the mistakes they made yesterday, that made it a lot more straightforward so it was about managing the gap at the front and keeping everything safe. I feel great, I feel in the best shape physically than I have been all year. The car is feeling better than ever and I feel positive going into the next couple of races. I feel they should be quite good for our car and I’m looking forward to the battle.”
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
I still don’t like him though 
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
I got confused and thought I was reading the Boris Johnson thread. When I saw your comment I thought “hmm, unusually mild criticism!”I still don’t like him though
I still don’t like him though
He's a little twat, isn't he.
He sort of reminds me how I used to feel about Vettel when he was at Red Bull and then he left, grew up & became rather likeable. Being around Dr Marko's & Horner's constant toxicity cannot help.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Aston Martin signs Mercedes’ chief F1 aerodynamicist
Aston Martin has recruited Mercedes’ chief aerodynamicist Eric Blandin and he will join the team at the end of the 2022 Formula 1 season. The move is part of Aston Martin’s major recruitment drive but previous high-profile technical hires have been from Red Bull. This is the first significant signing from Mercedes, which is Aston Martin’s engine supplier. "We can confirm that Eric Blandin will begin working for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 team next year,” said an Aston Martin spokesperson. “His exact start date is not yet confirmed. The transition from Mercedes AMG F1 team to ourselves will be an amicable one.”Blandin was named Mercedes’ chief aerodynamicist in 2017, having previously held the position of principal aerodynamicist. He was Ferrari’s aero team leader prior joining Mercedes and before that held the same role at Red Bull. Blandin is understood to still be working at Mercedes for now but will be placed on gardening leave in due course. He will be free to join Aston Martin towards the end of 2022.
That will be around the time another major signing – Dan Fallows – joins as technical director. Fallows is Red Bull’s head of aerodynamics and his current employer has not made it easy for Aston Martin to get its hands on its new recruit. His contract with Red Bull runs until 2023 and there was initially a suggestion he may be held to its entire duration. Fallows was still working at the factory as part of this but is understood to have recently been placed on gardening leave. As that can be the case for a maximum 12 months he is expected to join Aston Martin towards the end of next year.
a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
Mulling over those numbers again...
Vettel 739 laps in 2011. 19 races that season.
Mansell 694 laps in 1992 16 races that season.
Vettel 684 laps in 2013 19 races that season.
Schumacher 683 laps in 2004 18 races that season.
Schumacher 646 laps in 1994 16 races that season.
Verstappen 620 laps in 2021 20 races that season.
Hamilton 613 laps in 2020 17 races that season.
So...
Yes, Nigel Mansell completed 45 fewer laps in the lead than Vettel. But the 1992 season had three fewer races than 2011!
Mansell completed 10 more laps in the lead than Vettel's 2013 tally, again with three fewer races.
Mansell completed 11 more laps in the lead than Schumacher's 2004 tally, with two fewer races.
In 1994 Schumacher's record was set with the same number of races but he lead 48 fewer laps than Mansell.
Verstappen took 4 more races to complete 74 fewer laps in the lead than Mansell.
Hamilton's 2020 total had one more race yet still fell short of Mansell's tally by 75 laps.
Which surely points to Mansell's 1992 performance as the most dominant ever.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Excellent, talk of Mansell gives me another excuse to post the greatest overtake in F1, ever.
beesonthewhatnow
going deaf for a living
Mexico 1990: Mansell reveals all on his greatest F1 overtake
www.motorsport.com
1%er
Well-Known Member
Wolff ‘rejected Bottas-Russell swap idea for final two races’
Toto Wolff is reported to have shot down a suggestion that Mercedes should call up George Russell for the last two races of the season. Russell has only the Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix remaining of his three-year ‘loan’ spell at Williams before the Mercedes junior driver is promoted to the reigning World Champions’ team for 2022. In joining Lewis Hamilton for next season, the Briton will replace Valtteri Bottas who is moving on to Alfa Romeo after five years with Mercedes. But with every point increasingly valuable in the titanic battle with Red Bull for both of this season’s titles, it has been suggested due to Bottas’ inconsistency this year that Mercedes could fast-track Russell’s elevation to give them a stronger hand for Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. For last season’s penultimate round, the Briton did find himself in a Mercedes at the Sakhir Grand Prix when Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19. Russell made an immediate impact, being right on the pace and looking set to win the race until Mercedes made a pit-stop blunder and he sustained a subsequent puncture.Although Bottas has had his moments this term, winning the Turkish Grand Prix, he has also produced some underwhelming performances, the latest of which was last time out in Qatar where he made a poor start that dropped him to 11th position having already incurred a three-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags in qualifying. A Russell-Bottas swap for the last two races has been proposed by Sky Germany broadcaster Olivier Zwartyes, who said: “I would actually think about it. Bottas is going to Alfa Romeo, the air is completely out of there. Russell has been so much fun this season and will be driving there next season anyway, so why not give him these two races and Hamilton the support?”
However, Zwartyes indicated the prospect had already been mentioned to Mercedes team principal Wolff, who dismissed it out of hand. “Toto Wolff has already been asked about this and said ‘there is nothing like that in our team’,” said Zwartyes. The idea also brought a response from race strategist Alexander Bodo, who used to work for Mercedes, and he was not in favour either. “The pressure situation is so high and Mercedes and Bottas are a well-rehearsed team,” Bodo told Sky Germany. “There is another plan for Russell in the future. I think it would be foolish to throw him into this pressure scenario now when the championship is directly at stake.”
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
Curious as to who asked him, whether it was just a journalist or if it was actually someone in either the Mercedes or Williams set-up.
1%er
Well-Known Member
McLaren urged Ricciardo to ‘pull your finger out’
Daniel Ricciardo has confirmed that during his difficult start to life at McLaren, the push to raise his game did come. The Australian arrived as a seven-time race winner, a proven top tier F1 driver who was expected to lead McLaren’s climb back up the grid. But while many questioned if his team-mate Lando Norris could keep up, it actually began the other way around with Ricciardo unable to find the pace in the MCL35M that Norris could. McLaren showed patience with their new recruit, but Ricciardo nonetheless did have to take some constructive criticism. Explaining his experiences alongside ex-Olympian rower and now his race engineer Tom Stallard, Ricciardo said: “It’s encouraging to have Tom by my side knowing he was a competitive athlete. Obviously in your team you want someone who is good at what they do. But what I also really want, what I like, is a competitor, someone who will fight alongside me and look for that last little edge. And obviously Tom is someone who went to the Olympics and brought home a (silver) medal, so I know that’s in his character. So that’s cool. And the support of Tom, and really the whole team, was good they were very understanding and patient, for sure. But yeah, there was also at times a kind of ‘pull your finger out’, and I’m big enough to take constructive criticism there were no insults or beating me down, it was always trying to understand, ‘okay, what’s the issue, and then how can we help you?’ That was a more modern approach to take and it’s served us well.”Much of Ricciardo’s early troubles at McLaren revolved around him needing a completely different approach on the brakes complicated considering he had developed a reputation for late-braking overtakes. And so it was a complete adaptation for Ricciardo, one that left him scratching his head as to where he was haemorrhaging time an issue he had not encountered before. “The natural picture in my head was that every lap I do in this car, I’d just get better,” Ricciardo explained. “In Bahrain I qualified sixth and I knew I still wasn’t close to 100% comfortable. So in my head I was like ‘well, each time I drive now I’ll just push the car more and more’. And then I, let’s say, hit an early plateau where the limit was a different limit to what I was used to. And to arrive at that limit, I needed to drive the car quite differently. The car has some really strong points but also some weak points, and I was just trying to navigate my way to the strong points. It didn’t always come natural for me. The key was trying to break it down and understand it corner by corner because, as a whole, there were times when I was seven or eight tenths away [from Norris] and I was like ‘I can’t do that. I don’t know where that time is’. Even with me and Max [Verstappen], a really strong and competitive rivalry, I remember I was furious if he was two tenths faster than me. We all know the calibre of driver Max is. So and I’m not taking anything away from Lando a gap that big is like foreign territory really. I’ve never found myself in that position. It wasn’t like I made a mistake here or there, it was that I didn’t know where that chunk of time was. Tom was good at bringing it back and saying ‘look, let’s analyse, let’s go through this corner why can’t you do that, what’s stopping you? Let’s figure it out, let’s go from A to B to C, as opposed to just going straight from A to F’. Race car drivers or athletes, we are a certain amount of stubborn. But you can’t take that to your grave, if you know what I mean. At some point you have to be open-minded and say ‘all right, this is what it is. I have to now adapt and maybe I’m not comfortable with it at first, but take encouragement that the more I learn and get comfortable with it the better I’ll be’.”
Fortunately, the better times did come, with Ricciardo emerging from the summer break a different driver behind the wheel of the McLaren. Then he arrived at the Italian Grand Prix with a particular feeling, sensing a good weekend was coming he went on to win the race, leading home a McLaren one-two. Qualifying proved to be the catalyst, creating a rage inside Ricciardo as he came within a tenth of Red Bull’s Verstappen, and he channelled that to finish F1’s first sprint qualifying in P3, which became P2 due to an engine penalty for Valtteri Bottas. Sunday arrived and after passing Verstappen at the start, Ricciardo never looked back from there, delivering his true breakthrough drive in style. “I was definitely chomping at the bit and there was something…an inner confidence I certainly had,” said Ricciardo, reflecting on that race weekend at Monza. I felt better already. Since coming back from the summer break I’d felt refreshed and just ready to go, and Monza is a track I love and I felt good. And I had come up short in that qualifying session. I don’t know, I kind of flipped internally. I was just angry and I channelled that. I’m trying to get there more often now. I can’t say that on the Friday I was convinced I would win but if I look back through the weekend, am I surprised how the weekend ended? Hand on heart, I’m not surprised.”
Ricciardo’s showings have been mixed since Monza, he himself admitting he still is not nailing that “McLaren style”, but without doubt his performance level compared to Norris has shown a clear improvement. And now with two rounds to go in the season, Ricciardo has a vital role to play in helping McLaren secure P3 in the Constructors’ Championship with his team currently trailing Ferrari by 39.5 points.
1%er
Well-Known Member
You can be sure it has been talked about with-in the team, with the constructors championship so close they will have look at every option for sure. I think it would be a risk, while Bottas has had some crap results he has also had some good ones. I think I'd stick with what I know at this point of the season and get Bottas to proform at his best for the last two races.
a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
My guess would be... George Russell
MrCurry
right after this urgent rest
RIP Sir Frank.
It seems like well over ten years since Frank became the oldest living tetraplegic, so its been on the cards a long time and he did much better than anyone else with his scale of injuries.
I remember seeing at a FOTA event in 2012 when the Williams team opened their doors to allow fans to visit and get a tour. Despite being frail and struggling to speak, he had a charisma which got the whole room (large auditorium) laughing. He had a magic about him.
It seems like well over ten years since Frank became the oldest living tetraplegic, so its been on the cards a long time and he did much better than anyone else with his scale of injuries.
I remember seeing at a FOTA event in 2012 when the Williams team opened their doors to allow fans to visit and get a tour. Despite being frail and struggling to speak, he had a charisma which got the whole room (large auditorium) laughing. He had a magic about him.
Great to read that
He inspired me from a (TV) distance even as a lad. Never got to interact and TV access was more 'formal' back then.
Team bosses come and go these days but Sir Frank is the first that comes to mind for me. A powerful, yet humble man who delivered huge boost to UK motorsports.
I loved Claires involvement in the sport and she is missed too.
Limejuice
Well-Known Member
And on that sad note, F1 says: Go! Go! Go! Here comes the potential season-deciding race.
It's the Saudi GP and I imagine Sky et al will be showing their tributes to the Great Man and some of his quixotic driver decisions.
The UK times are:
Fri 3 Dec
FP1 - 13:30
FP2 - 17:00
Sat 4 Dec
FP3 - 14:00
Qual - 17:00
Sun 5 Dec
Race - 17:30
By the by, the current odds offered on Oddschecker (other ways to waste you money are available):
To win the Saudi GP - Hammy 8/15 and Max 9/4.
To win the drivers championship - Hammy 10/13 and Max 5/4.
To win the constructors - Mercedes 18/11 and Red Bull 9/4.
Unsurprisingly, it seems British punters favour the local boy. But the numbers will float as the money rolls in this week.
Choose wisely, and may all your lunches be free.
It's the Saudi GP and I imagine Sky et al will be showing their tributes to the Great Man and some of his quixotic driver decisions.
The UK times are:
Fri 3 Dec
FP1 - 13:30
FP2 - 17:00
Sat 4 Dec
FP3 - 14:00
Qual - 17:00
Sun 5 Dec
Race - 17:30
By the by, the current odds offered on Oddschecker (other ways to waste you money are available):
To win the Saudi GP - Hammy 8/15 and Max 9/4.
To win the drivers championship - Hammy 10/13 and Max 5/4.
To win the constructors - Mercedes 18/11 and Red Bull 9/4.
Unsurprisingly, it seems British punters favour the local boy. But the numbers will float as the money rolls in this week.
Choose wisely, and may all your lunches be free.
1%er
Well-Known Member
‘A pioneer and icon of the sport’ - Tributes to F1 legend Sir Frank Williams
Tributes have poured in from around the world of motorsport following the death of legendary Formula 1 team founder and boss Sir Frank Williams.Williams, who founded Williams Grand Prix Engineering in 1977 and led the team until its sale to US investors last year, died on Sunday surrounded by his family. Williams built the team named after him into one of the most successful in the sport. During his time at the helm, Williams claimed 114 grand prix victories and a total of 16 world championships. Seven drivers' titles and nine constructors’ world championships were amassed as Williams dominated much of the 1980s and 1990s. Following the announcement of Williams’s death, major paddock figures from F1 and motorsport paid their respects.
F1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali said: “He was a true giant of our sport that overcame the most difficult of challenges in life and battled every day to win on and off the track. We have lost a much loved and respected member of the F1 family and he will be hugely missed. His incredible achievements and personality will be with etched on our sport forever.”
Several took to social media to share their tributes. Below is just a selection of those who paid their condolences to Williams.
1%er
Well-Known Member
Marko reveals FIA talks over suspected Mercedes bias (what a wanker he is)
Helmut Marko has spoken about the fierce battle between Red Bull and Mercedes in 2021, which he feels was advanced by "very unsportsmanlike" behaviour from the Silver Arrows. With the two teams going head-to-head for this year's world titles, close racing on the track often has often spilled over off-track in the form of heated verbal exchanges between Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff. There have also been questions raised about the legality of the W12 and RB16B, with Marko particularly frustrated by the flexi-wing debate that erupted at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, amid questions from Mercedes and other teams. "When Mercedes saw that we were equal or even faster, they first came up with flexi-wings and then all sorts of other sham arguments," Red Bull advisor Marko explained "We took those actions as a very unsportsmanlike gesture and, after that, we also focused on what happens at Mercedes, for example with those wings". But he added: "That all comes with it when the battle is as intense as it is this year and especially when someone is not used to another team being able to offer competition."One-sidedness in favour of Mercedes?
Marko went on to explain that Red Bull initially thought there was a "one-sidedness" in the decisions being made, but have since had productive conversations with governing body the FIA and F1 owner Liberty Media. "We felt that there was a certain one-sidedness in the decisions," said Marko.
"But in the meantime, we have had several discussions with the FIA and also with Liberty, so I would say that it is 'part of the game'." Horner and Wolff's heated exchanges are also "part of the game", according to Marko, providing they do not go too far. "You support your own driver, of course, and yes, by doing so you discredit your opponent to a certain extent," he commented. "But anyway, that's logical in itself, as long as it stays within limits."
