Max Verstappen was not a lot eager about speaking after Components 1’s Mexico Grand Prix in regards to the controversy over his double penalty as a result of it was nowhere close to his largest fear.
In reality, it was not misplaced on him that, whereas his 20-second punishment robbed him of an opportunity to struggle for a podium, he knew that his Pink Bull was unlikely to be up there even with out the sanction.
Whereas he had managed to qualify on the entrance row, and even lead early on, Verstappen shortly came upon that the final word tempo was not there – particularly on the medium and arduous compounds.
“The issue is that we’re too sluggish, and that is why I am being put in these sorts of positions,” he stated of the controversial battle with Lando Norris. “That’s my downside.”
That Verstappen ended up sixth, 59.558 seconds behind race winner Carlos Sainz, did owe quite a bit to his punishment.
However should you dig a bit deeper into the information of his efficiency – and pull out the affect of time misplaced within the pits – then the state of affairs just isn’t really any higher. In reality, in pure knowledge phrases, it might be argued that Mexico was Pink Bull’s worst race of the season thus far.
Probably the greatest methods to correctly consider the velocity of vehicles is to have a look at their race tempo, and see the way it stacks up in opposition to the opposition.
Utilizing knowledge that has been helpfully collated by web site f1pace.com, we are able to pull out some key info to point out us how Verstappen’s tempo stacks up in opposition to the opposition throughout the season thus far.
These are primarily based on pure racing laps run at velocity, so the primary lap just isn’t counted and neither are these when drivers are both coming into the pits or leaving the pits. Laps accomplished below the Security Automobile and Digital Security Automobile are additionally discounted.
Going by means of the season, we are able to present how Verstappen’s race tempo stacked up in comparison with the quickest non-Pink Bull rival.
* Engine grid penalty meant he began eleventh
Primarily based on the above info, this knowledge can then be changed into a proportion determine to provide us a baseline of Pink Bull’s relative race tempo over the course of the marketing campaign – with Australia eliminated as a result of Verstappen was a DNF.
Because the beneath graph exhibits, Verstappen’s season has been going within the fallacious route.
The info clearly exhibits two-step adjustments over the season. From its dominant begin, Pink Bull fell again to going toe-to-toe with McLaren in Miami, and for the reason that British Grand Prix, the pattern appears to be of it dropping additional backwards.
And whereas the Mexico determine of 0.73% adrift is in numerical phrases the worst of the season, it is extremely just like what the crew delivered in Monza – which prompt that when there isn’t a downforce at play, the RB20’s weaknesses get uncovered much more.
Cynics at different groups would have cherished Pink Bull’s race tempo to have fallen away dramatically for the reason that Singapore GP weekend, when rivals turned alerted to its entrance bib adjuster – which some prompt might have been used to assist alter its journey peak between qualifying and the race and higher stability tempo throughout each periods.
However the knowledge doesn’t appear to again that up and means that Pink Bull’s kind has simply steadily drifted backwards as different squads have made good points.
The difficulty in Mexico seems to be extra tyre-related than anything – with the Pink Bull simply not getting the toughest of the compounds into the suitable working window.
As Pink Bull crew boss Christian Horner stated: “On the arduous tyre, we simply did not have the identical tempo. Max had no grip, we did not really feel we may swap the tyres on.
“In order that’s the most important problem within the subsequent 4 days, to know what precipitated that.
“Clearly, Brazil is a really completely different problem to this circuit, however it’s a sample that significantly on the finish of stints, you see the McLaren may be very sturdy – significantly on the finish of grands prix.”
With a 47-point hole between Verstappen and principal title rival Lando Norris, plus Ferrari in resurgent kind, Pink Bull is aware of that it must shortly flip a nook in its kind.
And, whereas Mexico has triggered some worries, it is going to hope that some venues arising that play to the high-speed aero effectivity Pink Bull strengths that have been proven in Belgium will maybe assist it get throughout the road.
As Helmut Marko advised ORF: “We won’t afford one other race like this.
“We have now to seek out velocity – and it is no secret that we’re at present dropping out to the competitors, particularly Ferrari and McLaren, within the sluggish corners.
“However we’ve two tracks, Qatar and Las Vegas, the place issues must be higher once more. And if we’ve the traditional set-up instances, then we’re not as distant from the leaders as we have been this time.”