Criticism of Red Bull: 'Why not gamble with Verstappen on slicks?'

2 August 2021 at 08:23

GPblog.com

Peter Windsor believes Red Bull Racing could have got more out of the Hungarian Grand Prix than they did with Max Verstappen. According to the Formula 1 analyst the Austrian team should have taken more risk on the restart by going out on slicks and he also doesn't understand why more repair work couldn't have been done on the RB16B during the red flag.

"I don't understand why Red Bull couldn't change the floor and put all the new bargeboards that they needed onto Max's car," he kicks off in his latest analysis on YouTube. "Instead of which they taped everything up and it definitely wasn't a great race car. There seemed to be enough time to do it, it doesn't take that much time to change the floor. Maybe something was broken or maybe they didn't have a spare floor, maybe it's as simple as that."

Red Bull falls short

The red flag situation lasted about 20 minutes, but Red Bull failed to bring a competitive car to the track. Strategically, the Milton Keynes-based team also failed. Verstappen drove at the back, which Windsor believes is the perfect opportunity to try something tactically.

"When Max was in the position he is in, at the back there and it's going to be very lucky to score a point, why not take the gamble and put him slicks at the start. I don't think he'd have won it because the car was badly damaged, but he might have been top three. For Red Bull, who normally think quickly on their feet, I thought it was a rather strange decision," said the 69-year-old Brit.