In the Red Bull garage there is some concern in spite of the amazing pole position conquered by Max Verstappen in the qualifying for the United States GP.
What is the reason that alarms the engineers headed by Pierre Wache? The answer is relatively simple: Milton Keynes’s team, in an attempt to counter the technical superiority shown by the Mercedes on Friday, decided to dare by deliberating an RB16B with a lower ground clearance than that of the black arrows, which in the dry lap they have significantly lost downforce.
On the bumps in Austin, Red Bull accused the crack in Max Verstappen’s rear wing after free practice on Saturday morning: looking for the load and performance in Milton Keynes they decided to take some risks in terms of reliability despite the dangerous cracks discovered on the main profile of the Dutchman’s Red Bull RB16B.
They kept the car crawling over the bumps, but the violent vibrations and jolts caused by the bumps caused small subsidence on the main profile of the wing.
Red Bull immediately informed the technical commissioners of the FIA asking to reinforce the wing where it began to fail with carbon skins, although the car was already in the parc fermé regime.
The drawing of Giorgio Piola that we publish shows us where the interventions were made on the rear wing: in addition to adding carbon in the lower and upper part of the main profile, the technicians decided to make a similar intervention also on Sergio Perez’s RB16B which was analyzed during the night .
“There is never a stress-free session – Christian Horner told Sky – we didn’t understand if Max hit something because a nice crack appeared on the wing. They allowed us to put reinforcements for safety reasons, and we also introduced them on Perez’s car, although there were no breakages ”.
The race is played on the wear of the tires that increases if the car is raised because a reduction in the aerodynamic load is determined and, therefore, it is not possible to transfer the necessary energy to the tires. But to avoid damage to the bumps, the ground clearance has been increased. Whoever has found the best compromise will be able to bring home the best result.
Red Bull seems to have taken a few more risks than the black arrows: “On Friday we arrived on track with a slightly wrong setup – revealed Horner -, but we managed to correct the shot”.
Sebastien Buemi spent Friday night in the Milton Keynes simulator to correct the set-up choices that had been made at home. For the second time in a row the team did not hit the targets, but at this juncture they found the square in time. Today’s world championship game is played on the details: a millimeter of height more or less can determine a different race pace, affecting tire wear. Who will win the bet (and the GP)?
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