“Today’s race was decided by a few episodes. I personally regret Max’s unsafe release on Carlos. If Carlos doesn’t slow down, he goes after him. In our opinion, the telemetry data are evident, we immediately communicated the episode to the Race Direction, but they did not consider that there were the extremes for the penalty ”. Thus the Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto in the post-race at the end of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix underlined his disappointment for a missed penalty against the reigning world champion for this episode that took place in the pit lane on the occasion of the only stop made by the Ferrari drivers and the Dutchman on the occasion of the Safety Car which entered the track following the accident involving Nicholas Latifi as protagonist.
Ferrari obviously made a ‘double’ pit stop, with Max Verstappen restarting from his own pitch as Carlos Sainz arrived. Seeing the television images it doesn’t seem that there were the extremes for an unsafe release, but telemetry analysis confirms the thesis of Mattia Binotto. According to the data provided by Federico Albano, the comparison of the accelerator and brake lines between Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz highlights the fact that the Spaniard had to exert a little pressure on the brake pedal twice. In the three graphs below, the white line is related to Leclerc, the red one to Sainz. The speed graph shows that Sainz slows down more than Leclerc as he approaches the pitch. The graph relating to the brake pedal points out that Sainz is forced to brake before Leclerc (two times). The speed graph shows a different shape between the two Ferrari drivers, with the Spaniard obviously having to slow down before him as he enters the pitch, finding Verstappen in front. The slowdown is minimal, so much so that on a visual level Sainz slows down a little to avoid the collision, without having to resort to an obvious ‘nail’.
This risk taken by Red Bull in restarting Verstappen then generated a chain loss of a few cents or tenths for Sainz that could have made a difference. at the exit from the pits when Sainz found himself behind Perez despite having on paper the right to occupy the third position. Checo then returned his position after the restart, but Sainz’s chance to attack Verstappen at the restart had now been thwarted. Episodes, details, certainly not a clear incorrectness. But in a weekend in which 25 thousandths made the difference in Qualifying and in which less than six tenths divided Verstappen and Leclerc at the finish line, it is legitimate for Binotto to demand attention from the stewards on every detail. After all, Verstappen himself in the race challenged Charles Leclerc on two occasions for contact with the entry line in the pit lane and a suspicious gain of ground under the yellow flag in the final laps of the Grand Prix.
#Unsafe #release #Verstappen #telemetry #data #proves #Binotto