For three years, Red Bull has dominated Mexico. Max Verstappen won the races at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 2017 and 2018. If he had not ignored the yellow flags in qualifying yesterday, he would now be back on pole. But Red Bull team boss Christian Horner sees the penalty even as a chance:
“Now we have at least slipstream. When starting from the front, the Ferrari might have nipped us on the straights.”
That leaves the question, which we ask provocatively and without a claim of correctness:
Has Verstappen deliberately risked a penalty? Did he know that he would lose three starting positions…? And that the pole position, the second of his career, still remains for the statistics and history books?
It fits, that already at the Russia Grand Prix in Sochi in 2018 he received a penalty getting set back three positions and two penalty points because he had ignored a yellow flag.
At any rate, that would explain why Verstappen frankly admitted his offense in the press conference and even amused himself by that. The other explanation: He was just honest and seriously believed that he would only get the fastest lap. At least that’s how it sounded from the horse’s mouth:
“Do we really have to talk about safety? We already know what we’re doing, otherwise we wouldn’t be driving Formula 1 cars. It’s qualifying, you hit it, and if they give me the lap time they want to take it away… “
But what makes the Red Bull in Mexico so strong?
The answer: The best compromise between downforce and top speed. Verstappen lost only ten km/h in qualifying on the long final straight and thus three-tenths of a second. In curvy sectors two and three, Verstappen was two and a tenth faster, respectively. Those add to a 0.25 seconds advantage.
Background of the technology attack from Milton Keynes: The Red Bull car is an Adrian Newey car! His cars traditionally build on contact pressure through the underbody, hence they don’t have to be set up with steep wings.
It’s striking to see in Mexico: Red Bull was able to reduce the S-shaft due to the thin air. It sucks less air from the bottom up. In addition: The mechanical grip is correct. Driving the curbs in a rough manner is no problem for the Red Bulls.
Mercedes is only the third strongest force in Mexico. Team principal Toto Wolff:
“The times when our strong engine saved us, are over.”
Ferrari has now the strongest engine. According to information from F1-insider.com, Mercedes wanted to drive with a stronger engine mode in Mexico. They have therefore cut extra-large gills on the outer hood and rebuilt the rear suspension in such a manner that hot air can escape easily from the rear. In the mountain air of Mexico, cooling is everything.
And who is now favorite now for this coming Sunday race? Ferrari bets on the top speed, from the front row. It is 811 meters away until the first corner. Tire wear was low on both Red Bull and Ferrari. All six top pilots start on medium-hard yellow tires.
