Red Bull reserve Jake Dennis knows for sure after his introduction to the RB19: the car is not made for Verstappen.
The 2023 F1 season comes to an end this weekend with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It has been an unprecedented year for Red Bull Racing, but especially for Max Verstappen. To date, the energy can giant has won all races except the Singapore Grand Prix. But while MV1 is stringing together one victory after another, teammate Perez is stuck at two first places. The Mexican is second in the rankings, but has only about half the number of points that Max scored.
Biiiiiiizarrrrrrrrr
And that is somewhat bizarre, as father Perez compared the battle between Max and Checo at the beginning of the season with that between Prost and Senna. Now the father of is not necessarily an independent source on this. But it is true that the gap between the two suddenly became much wider after the Spanish Grand Prix. Perez claims that an update has been made to the RB19 that suits him less than Max. And this is a line of thought that is grist to the mill for fans of the Mexican and to some extent Gasly and Albonio. The reason why their heroes were brutally beaten by Max is not due to the failure of those heroes, but the Red Bull team. At least that is the thinking.
Cheat code
It is not entirely surprising that this line of thought exists. After all, it would not be the first time in Formula 1 that a team gives the ‘first driver’ a little (a lot) of preference over the second. Rather the new upgrades, the better mechanics, the better strategy, the better launch and traction control through an unprecedented cheat code on the steering wheel, you know the drill. It also makes sense to a certain extent.
Marginal differences
If one of the two drivers is better and you have approximately 9 other teams that are doing everything they can to beat you, giving maximum support to your spearhead – which you are sure can take the win – is not a crazy idea. . Although it must be maddening for the second rider, in a world where marginal differences make the erm…difference.
It’s a sabotage?
In the long history of the sport, there have even been a few times when teams have practically sabotaged one of the drivers. But, in today’s sport, it seems very unlikely to us that that will still happen. However, just develop the car to what Max wants… Well, maybe. We can’t get behind the wheel to check it ourselves, unfortunately.
Jake Dennis Red Bull substitute
Fortunately, Jake Dennis did get that opportunity. In Abu Dhabi he was allowed to drive in a free practice with the RB19. The Formula E champion has had a Nyck de Vries-like career. He once finished third in F3 (years ago) and then fourth in GP3. But an extra season of F3 did not lead to more success and after that he disappeared from the direct ladder to F1. Through Formula E, in which he previously finished third and was champion this season, he ended up on Red Bull’s radar. We don’t think the Brit has a real chance of getting a seat, but as a SIM driver the team also allowed him to get a taste of the real thing.
RB19 not made for Verstappen
After those 60 minutes in the car, Dennis comes up with striking statements, which Perez can stick in his pants. The Brit is convinced that the RB19 actually is a very nice container to ride along. Not at all an over-controlling monster as people sometimes claim Max likes:
Honestly, just jumping in the car today – obviously I don’t drive F1 cars I do a lot of simulator work – but you jump in this car and it just feels completely natural. I don’t agree when people say ‘Are the cars designed for Max?’ I jumped in that thing today and it felt exactly like how a race car should. It does what you want it to do, it turns the way it should turn. I think people who are often skeptical to jump to conclusions of ‘This car is purely made for Max’ – it’s really not the case. Any team goes out there to build the fastest race car possible and it’s up to the driver to adjust to that. And I think that’s exactly what Red Bull have done and Max, obviously the talent he is, has done that.
Jake Dennis, throws sneaky shade at Perez
Whose deed.
This article Red Bull substitute: “RB19 not specially made for Verstappen” first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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