How Red Bull’s “ballsy call” on French GP F1 strategy was made
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Verstappen had gifted the lead to Lewis Hamilton at the start with an error into Turn 1 but was able to claim it back thanks to a powerful undercut strategy that Mercedes failed to calculate for.Red Bull opted to give up the lead on Lap 32 by calling Verstappen into the pits for a second time, leaving the Dutchman needing to pass both Mercedes drivers and recover an 18-second gap to leader Hamilton in just 20 laps.A stunning final stint on medium tyres enabled Verstappen to do exactly that, with the Red Bull driver overtaking Hamilton’s one-stopping Mercedes with two laps to go to seal the win in what was effectively a role reversal of the 2019 Hungarian GP and 2021 Spanish GP. After the race, Red Bull team principal Horner explained the decision-making process behind the strategy and praised his side’s bold call.Related ArticlesaccImages.createImage(); Mercedes ‘doesn’t fully understand’ how Verstappen undercut HamiltonaccImages.createImage(); Sainz reveals Ferrari tyre wear was “two times” worse than F1 rivals“Once we were on the hard tyre, we stopped on lap 18, we were discussing [a second stop] around lap 28 so sort of 10 laps later,” Horner said.“Max was being pushed really hard, he wasn’t able to be managing the tyres. Mercedes were telling their drivers to keep the pressure on us, and we thought they were very much gearing up for a two stop themselves.Related ArticlesaccImages.createImage(); Sainz reveals Ferrari tyre wear was “two times” worse than F1 rivalsaccImages.createImage(); Norris: McLaren “overachieved” with P5 & P6 in F1 French GP“And the feedback from the car was that he didn’t think you’d get to the end. The strategist presented the options in front of me and said we have got nothing to lose.”So, we pulled the trigger and by putting Sergio [Perez] on the alternative strategy, we got both scenarios covered, which at that point in the race we weren’t sure which one would work out.“It would have almost been easier if they’d have maintained track position, because then we would have pulled the trigger anyway,” he added.”4“It would have made our decision easier, but to make that call when you’re in the lead and all the tyres are looking okay, it was quite a ballsy call, but it was the fastest way we felt at the end of the race.”SI202106200509_hires_jpeg_24bit_rgb.jpg accImages.createImage();Horner believes Red Bull’s strategy ultimately made the difference in trumping Mercedes despite having a slower car over the distance of the race.“I think strategically we were better in that race, I mean there’s very, very little between the cars,” he added.“I think arguably in the wind that we had today, their race pace looked a bit more comfortable for them, you know, with the winds, the Mistral is strong here, it was quite tricky out there.”5“I think with a low downforce on the car it wasn’t quite as secure as the Mercedes.”googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(“div-gpt-1623923777824-0
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