2021 Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[El Scorchio]

They lose in race trim ZERO time with clipping issues. That clipping is history now.

Yes, clipping is not a problem, outright power is and that's even worse. Mercedes owns honda in race trim for whatever reason and has been since start of the season (sitting duck comment anyone?). It's basically impossible to overtake a mercedes in a regular overtake, whereas mercedes will easily destroy you if you give them but a sniff of opportunity.

Thats the reason i speculated clipping or deployment in general. The poor race trim, cause it doesnt make sense having such a great power on quali trim and falling that much behind in race trim considering they use the same engine mode between those. Remember that only deployment changes between race and quali now.

I think too much is being made of this. It’s clear that drive out of the last corner was the biggest factor. Mercedes were just better at that key point of the track and it made for an exaggerated looking pace differential on the straight. The Red Bull was definitely faster through the middle part of the lap, but you can’t overtake there, and then all the ground made up was lost on the last corner.

It was all about being the quickest car round the last corner in the race rather than fastest over the whole lap.

[Lock2nl]

Could the lack of straight line speed be related to gear box ratios, which are fixed for the entire season?
Moreover, Max had an issue with third gear. To avoid it he short shifted. However, many corners are taken in third. Particularly Sagres (14). This one is vital for anything coming after that, including the main straight. It is exactly there, where Max lost time to the Mercedes cars.

[Juzh]

They lose in race trim ZERO time with clipping issues. That clipping is history now.

Yes, clipping is not a problem, outright power is and that's even worse. Mercedes owns honda in race trim for whatever reason and has been since start of the season (sitting duck comment anyone?). It's basically impossible to overtake a mercedes in a regular overtake, whereas mercedes will easily destroy you if you give them but a sniff of opportunity.

Thats the reason i speculated clipping or deployment in general. The poor race trim, cause it doesnt make sense having such a great power on quali trim and falling that much behind in race trim considering they use the same engine mode between those. Remember that only deployment changes between race and quali now.

I know engine maps should be the same, but quite obviously something else is happening in the background. I've listened to all radio transmissions to Max and amount of engine related switches that he did trough the race is unbelievable. Some of those will be to manage the battery: mode 6-7-8... lower number is more deployment, higher number is less energy deployment. But then there's loads of stuff related to something else entirely: engine 7 position 10, engine 7 position 7, engine 13 position 8... They go back and fourth constantly on these settings.

[Juzh]

Could the lack of straight line speed be related to gear box ratios, which are fixed for the entire season?
Moreover, Max had an issue with third gear. To avoid it he short shifted. However, many corners are taken in third. Particularly Sagres (14). This one is vital for anything coming after that, including the main straight. It is exactly there, where Max lost time to the Mercedes cars.

Gearbox ratios are not an issue, if they would be then it'd be a major mistake and we'd hear about it all the time.

Third gear was a problem tough, I think engine management wasn't calculated properly. He complained multiple times about it. Either mgu-h wasn't spooling up turbine enough causing lack of boost or maybe energy assist kicked in too late once he was already at full throttle. Details can't be known. This seemed specific to this track tough as Bahrain's problems were down to some diff related stuff and this time there was no mention of this on radio.

[godlameroso]

No, the Mercedes engine has a slight edge in power, and efficiency. Honda has closed the gap they have not overtaken Mercedes. The Mercedes seems to better under traction, where the RBR can carry a bit more speed in the corners, and is better under braking.

RBR could have maximized the team result by trying to beat Bottas. Had they put Perez on hards after running for so long in clean air, he should have been very quick at the end and would have had a chance at Bottas. Instead they tried to deny fastest lap and it almost backfired on them. Likely with the hard tire Perez could have bagged fastest lap anyway, having pitted so late, it would have prevented Bottas from even attempting it.

Not sure I agree - the Perez fastest lap play resulted in Hamilton not getting it, and tbh Verstappen should have really got it, so I would put that in the 'good strategy play'. Bottas getting the fastest lap instead of Hamilton is a good thing.

Perez was in the race enough that any safety in the last half would have flipped the whole race around. It was a reasonable gamble considering his strengths and the race at that time. I think they will be happy with Perez performance today. He is trending in the right direction.

I don't think Red Bull really care if Bottas gets 3rd or 8th, it's about taking points away from Hamilton any way they can.

Verstappen's fastest lap was faster than Hamilton's before he pitted to try and bag fastest lap.

Also why just win the WDC when you can also nab the WCC as well? It's a team game and the people that built this car also deserve recognition.

[hasika]

From what i saw yesterday,I think the main difference was T13 and T14.Hamilton overtaked Verstappen and Bottas because they both made mistake in T14,then Hamilton was close enough to them before the main straight.The mercedes car seems more stable in T14 and they can put on full throttle earlier, so Max cant get close enough to bottas before the main straight in first stint.So basically overtake is impossible.

[Sieper]

Yeah, that could also be. But then 1 lap earlier would be better? Because you need a cool down, charge up lap after a hot lap. And I think Bottas had 1 chance now anyway? Or was it enough for 2 attempts.

[etusch]

From what i saw yesterday,I think the main difference was T13 and T14.Hamilton overtaked Verstappen and Bottas because they both made mistake in T14,then Hamilton was close enough to them before the main straight.The mercedes car seems more stable in T14 and they can put on full throttle earlier, so Max cant get close enough to bottas before the main straight in first stint.So basically overtake is impossible.

During race I also realised that Verstappen cannot reach start finish close enough. merc were better there. Today I watched race highlight and I saw that Verstappen made a mistake before ham overtake him. If verstappen could overtake bottus before that, race could finish different.

[godlameroso]

Trust me, Barcelona will suit the RB16B very well. First chance to get a 1-2. We can do this. Easy one stopper too, start on mediums pit on hards and push like mad.

[etusch]

Trust me, Barcelona will suit the RB16B very well. First chance to get a 1-2. We can do this. Easy one stopper too, start on mediums pit on hards and push like mad.

I hope so. And Perez really looks gradually performs better. Every race he is better than last one.

[godlameroso]

Trust me, Barcelona will suit the RB16B very well. First chance to get a 1-2. We can do this. Easy one stopper too, start on mediums pit on hards and push like mad.

I hope so. And Perez really looks gradually performs better. Every race he is better than last one.

Last year Hamilton had a .3 second advantage over Verstappen in Barcelona. The gap was closer there than it was in Portimao. If the trend continues and RBR has gained ~.4 on Mercedes it should put them slightly ahead. In any case, overtaking in Barcelona is hard and track position will be important, so qualifying will be key.

Last year Verstappen could sort of hang with Hamilton in the race but Verstappen chewed up his tires quicker than Hamilton. Even if Mercedes is kinder on its tires, Verstappen should have the edge in pace. Bahrain turns 5 6 and 7 showed us that the RBR can carry more speed in the corners, and that trend has not changed in Imola or Portimao.

There are more of those types of corners in Barcelona, and with the reprofiled turn 10, it's less of a sharp hair pin, and more a speed carrying corner.

Last year it was a two stop race, I'm guessing it may be a one stopper this year, or an aggressive two stopper.

[Juzh]

Trust me, Barcelona will suit the RB16B very well. First chance to get a 1-2. We can do this. Easy one stopper too, start on mediums pit on hards and push like mad.

I hope so. And Perez really looks gradually performs better. Every race he is better than last one.

Last year Hamilton had a .3 second advantage over Verstappen in Barcelona. The gap was closer there than it was in Portimao. If the trend continues and RBR has gained ~.4 on Mercedes it should put them slightly ahead. In any case, overtaking in Barcelona is hard and track position will be important, so qualifying will be key.

Last year Verstappen could sort of hang with Hamilton in the race but Verstappen chewed up his tires quicker than Hamilton. Even if Mercedes is kinder on its tires, Verstappen should have the edge in pace. Bahrain turns 5 6 and 7 showed us that the RBR can carry more speed in the corners, and that trend has not changed in Imola or Portimao.

There are more of those types of corners in Barcelona, and with the reprofiled turn 10, it's less of a sharp hair pin, and more a speed carrying corner.

Last year it was a two stop race, I'm guessing it may be a one stopper this year, or an aggressive two stopper.

Mercedes had so much advantage in barcelona last year they didn't even use strat 2 for Q3 and still pulled 0.8s lead in quali. I know this year will be closer but such blind confidence you're exhibiting is foolish, sorry.

[Pyrone89]

Trust me, Barcelona will suit the RB16B very well. First chance to get a 1-2. We can do this. Easy one stopper too, start on mediums pit on hards and push like mad.

Exactly what are you basing this on? All I see is Mercedes is getting stronger and stronger and now away from RBR while RBR is consistently plagued by little reliability issues and seemingly correlation issues with their new updates (see RB16B topic). Knowing Mercedes' history they are bound to drop the performance hamer on RBR like they did on Ferrari in previous years and bolt.

[godlameroso]

I hope so. And Perez really looks gradually performs better. Every race he is better than last one.

Last year Hamilton had a .3 second advantage over Verstappen in Barcelona. The gap was closer there than it was in Portimao. If the trend continues and RBR has gained ~.4 on Mercedes it should put them slightly ahead. In any case, overtaking in Barcelona is hard and track position will be important, so qualifying will be key.

Last year Verstappen could sort of hang with Hamilton in the race but Verstappen chewed up his tires quicker than Hamilton. Even if Mercedes is kinder on its tires, Verstappen should have the edge in pace. Bahrain turns 5 6 and 7 showed us that the RBR can carry more speed in the corners, and that trend has not changed in Imola or Portimao.

There are more of those types of corners in Barcelona, and with the reprofiled turn 10, it's less of a sharp hair pin, and more a speed carrying corner.

Last year it was a two stop race, I'm guessing it may be a one stopper this year, or an aggressive two stopper.

Mercedes had so much advantage in barcelona last year they didn't even use strat 2 for Q3 and still pulled 0.8s lead in quali. I know this year will be closer but such blind confidence you're exhibiting is foolish, sorry.

.7, when RBR still had their early season instability, and thus couldn't produce a representative qualifying lap. Look at the race pace, if Mercedes had such a huge advantage why couldn't Bottas keep up with or overtake Verstappen? Speaking of foolish confidence.

[etusch]

If I didn't remember wrong last year merc was making big difference at last part of track, at slow turns. At fast turns there was not much difference. This year RBR is faster at corners and I don't think merc can do enough difference at slow speed sections even if they had still advantage there.