Albers: 'Red Bull should have banged their fist on the table'

F1 News

7 June 2021 at 15:39
Last update 7 June 2021 at 19:13
  • GPblog.com

A few laps before the end of the race, a seemingly certain win for Max Verstappen went up in smoke due to a rear left tire blowout. After the Dutchman hit the wall hard on the straight, a red flag was raised with three laps to go.

Fist on the table

Red Bull Racing's reaction to the situation, according to former F1-driver Christijan Albers is the only mistake the team has made this weekend. "They should have said to Michael Masi [the race director] that so many percent of the race had already been run and that the race had to be stopped. That it was dangerous for all the drivers," Albers said in the Formula 1 podcast of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

Red Bull Racing's team management should have gone all out to have the race flagged. "Not once did they bother to bang their fist on the table and say to Masi, 'With all due respect, this race has to stop now. This is life-threatening'. There was so much rubbish on the track and also in a place where the speed is even higher than Lance Stroll's crash."

Win for Verstappen after all

If the race were to be flagged off at that point because of a dangerous situation, it would still give Verstappen the win. "Then you go back one or two laps for the result and that would mean Max Verstappen would have won. Problem solved. And not once did we think about that. I had gone all out to make sure that flag was flagged."