Red Bull's efficiency and rivals' hopes: Will penalties close the gap?
Jun.28 - Although Red Bull's rivals have taken steps towards the dominant F1 team's dominance recently, Alex Wurz says Max Verstappen is the clear favourite for the Austrian GP this weekend.
"They have a car with good top speed, good downforce in slow corners and little drag on the straights. That's what's needed at the Red Bull Ring," the former F1 driver and president of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association told Kronen Zeitung.
"Of course Max Verstappen has every chance of setting the tone in Spielberg."
However, Dr Helmut Marko warned recently that Charles Leclerc could actually play a spoiler role at Red Bull's home race.
"Let's see," he told Osterreich newspaper. "Ferrari had the fastest car in Montreal. And now the Red Bull Ring suits them.
"If Leclerc starts from row 1 or 2, it won't be a walk in the park for Max."
Wurz, though, is sceptical.
"With Ferrari it's pretty difficult at the moment to know what package they will arrive on the track with," he said, as reports emerge that Ferrari actually tested a new floor during a 'filming day' at Fiorano this week.
Certainly, Pierre Wache - Red Bull's technical director - does not seem to be too worried, as he admits that the 2023 car's dominance turned out to be "bigger than we expected" before the season started.
"It's the efficiency, I would say," he said. "On different tracks we are able to produce downforce without massive drag."
However, Red Bull's rivals have now had weeks to study the photos of the RB19's floor from Monaco - and Wache admits that the wind tunnel development penalties for the 2021 budget cap overspend may soon start to bite.
That is despite the fact that Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton warned that Red Bull - so far ahead in the championships - may now get a huge boost from being able to focus so early on the 2024 car.
"It is not easier because we are leading the championship," Wache insists. "We are going to the limit.
"I think it (the penalties) could for sure affect the current development of the car and maybe closing up the grid this year, but also will massively affect next year's car," Wache added.
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I still don't get where Marko gets the idea that Ferrari would've been the fastest on the last race weekend.
The wind tunnel-CFD penalty will certainly affect RB20 design & development phase, so next season’s beginning will be interesting regarding how the competitive order at the top looks like between RB, AM, Mercedes, & Ferrari.
From Saturday until this year’s end, Mercedes will have the second least wind tunnel-CFD time, followed by AM, & Ferrari, so hopefully, all three will use the opportunity to good effect.
While AM will have 20% less time for this year’s second half than they’ve had over the first half after finishing 7th last season, they’ll critically still have more than the outright fastest team, which is the most important thing.
Because Marco might be a gti, sorry a git, but he knows the right buttons to push, all the bosses play that game
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