Red Bull blames Alpine team for DRS 'disadvantage'
Apr.10 - Red Bull is openly questioning why the FIA banned one of the four DRS zones in Melbourne.
Formula 1's governing body said the decision was made for "safety reasons", with the porpoising phenomenon particularly noteworthy in the fast and winding stretch to the high-speed turns 9 and 10.
"I don't really understand why they took it away," world champion Max Verstappen said.
"It was much safer than what we do in Jeddah, for example. So it's a bit of a mystery to me why that happened."
Red Bull's leading theory is that it was Fernando Alonso's complaints about the safety of being able to use DRS in that stretch that forced the issue.
Dr Helmut Marko confirms: "Alpine couldn't drive through these sections with DRS. So they wanted to make it disappear.
"It's strange that decisions like this are made because only one team wants it," the Red Bull official said.
It is believed Red Bull is particularly upset about the decision because the run to turn 9 is where title rival Ferrari's porpoising is the worst - and having the wing closed helps with that.
"We have a lot of bouncing," polesitter Charles Leclerc said. "It was pretty tricky with the wing open."
Not just that, Red Bull's 7kph top speed advantage over Ferrari in the DRS zone in question was reduced to just 1kph after the FIA's decision to remove it.
"This is definitely a disadvantage for us," Marko told Sky Deutschland.
"We just have to see where and when we can overtake now without being immediately overtaken again.
"I just hope Leclerc can still see the world clearly after the end of the race," the 78-year-old Austrian added, referring to the extreme aerodynamic effect.
As for Verstappen and his visible discomfort in being second behind Leclerc on Sunday's grid, Marko urged the reigning world champion to calm down.
"He goes over the limit - he wants too much," he said.
"That didn't work out here in the last sector. We thought that with the world championship title there would be some calmness from him, but he probably needs another title so that he doesn't go into qualifying with so much pressure."
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
not sure he'll ever change marko - he is who he is and you either accept that or not
i don't always like how he behaves but respect the fact he dgaf what anyone thinks and its refreshing in todays woke environment
he seems under the most pressure he's ever been under which is surprising
but the most important thing in this article is the DRS change
you can't move a goal post mid event - especially for porpoising
it punishes the teams who through hard work and sacrifice have designed and set up the car better
"It's strange that decisions like this are made because only one team wants it," the Red Bull official said.
You mean like when Moron Masi made a flawed decision in your favor in Abu Dhabi last year that benefitted your boy huh Hel the Mut? Lol the irony.
Tough weekend for his Lucky Champ. Tsk tsk so sad. 😇(*)
"This is definitely a disadvantage for us," Marko told Sky Deutschland.
Doc, your big disadvantage is that you've DNF'd 2 out of 3. BTW, your wunderkid is pissed.
The thing about AD was , everyone wanted it to go Maxes way, only Lewis and Toto wanted the bore fest to continue, RB gotta sort there reliability out, zee germans vill not stand fur that ja , racist ? no , the Brits cant stand the French either lol
No worries, we yanks hate everybody except Aussies and Canadians. The rest of you are jerkwads.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.