Max Verstappen has explained some of his troubles with the brakes he had in F1 Styrian GP, as FIA Race Director Michael Masi warned Red Bull for the Dutchman’s post-race slow down.
The only trouble Red Bull’s Verstappen faced in all of the F1 Styrian GP was when he complained about the brake-by-wire warnings he had couple of times. His race engineer got back to him and asked him to stay away from the kerbs at Turn 9-10.
Verstappen bouncing off those kerbs alerted the systems, which wasn’t race-threatening, but something which is not nice to hear as a race leader. “It quickly just feel a bit to the floor in between 9 and 10 while braking and then it would come back after Turn 10,” he said. “So we’ll look into that. It happened two times I think.”
With Verstappen sticking to one-stop, it was a good performance from the Dutchman and Red Bull to keep the tyres going, a change from their past races. When asked of the work done behind the scenes, the Dutchman didn’t wish to in go in details, but added:
“Of course I cannot go into detail but it’s all about, of course, making sure that you have the tyres to the end. I do think in Barcelona was a bit like it was today. They couldn’t keep up with me in terms of pace and if you have that little bit extra in terms of pace you can manage your lap times a bit more.
“That just helps these tyres a lot to the end because they’re super-sensitive in terms of sliding, locking, whatever. They overheat super-quick, so it’s all about management at the end,” summed up Verstappen, as team boss Horner, added a bit more on the brake troubles the Dutchman had for some period of time.
“I think we could see, it was what you call a bit of knock-off, where you rattle over the kerbs, the feeling the pedal goes long, and it must be a horrible feeling,” Horner said. But I think once he stayed off the kerb, that then managed, the system was much happier with that. It wasn’t too much of a drama.”
While that was the one drama during the grand prix, Verstappen and Red Bull, had another waiting just after it, when FIA Race Director Masi radioed the team straightaway to not undertake such victory celebrations ever in the future.
With Lewis Hamilton far off behind, Verstappen slowed in front of his mechanics on the pitwall and did a burnout, while the race was on for multiple other drivers. It didn’t please Masi, who went by the FIA rule book of post-race celebrations.
“Yes I did, as soon as it happened,” said Masi to written media. “It was not an ideal situation, which is why I spoke to the team immediately and told them accordingly, that it’s something that would not be tolerated in the future.”
While the Article 43.3 of F1’s Sporting Regulations is clear that any post-race celebrations that drivers do must be done within strict limits, it, however, doesn’t specifically mentions about Verstappen-like burnouts. F1 Drivers have done donuts in the past, mostly.
The rule states:
a) Performed safely and does not endanger other drivers or any officials.
b) Does not call into question the legality of his car.
c) Does not delay the podium ceremony
Here’s the video of it: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2021-styrian-grand-prix-verstappen-storms-to-dominant-victory-at-red-bull-ring.1703730921120688677.html
Here’s how F1 Styrian GP panned out
