When the traffic lights went out Japanese GP, Daniel Ricciardo he finds himself in front of Stroll. The Canadian had not made a superb start. The RB driver is then overtaken by other cars. Going towards turn 2, the Italian car is on the outside Alex Albon. The Thai wants that trajectory to then have the inside at 3. At the moment, however, the latter is in a blind spot of Daniel's mirror. The two touch each other and hit the barriers violently, but without consequences. Helmut Marko also intervened on the issue of the accident of Daniel Ricciardo and Alexander Albon, which completely changed the teams' racing strategies.
Marko declares: “Max won the race also because of Ricciardo's accident”
What happened between Williams and VCARB caused the exposure of the Red flag. For the mechanics, it's as if there was a pit stop with time unlimited. It is therefore also possible to carry out changes to the incidence of some front wing flaps.
According to what revealed by Helmut Marko, head of the youth sector at Red Bull, Verstappen was not comfortable with the setup. What had been tried in the free sessions did not work as well as possible on Sunday. In fact, on race day the temperature was highest than Friday or Saturday. Max wanted more front load, but his engineer Lambias He did not agree. Stopping the race was “A godsend” for the two, who were able to compare: “Max wanted more load on the front wing, Lambiase didn't agree. The red flag allowed us to compare the data to understand which was the best choice. Indirectly Daniel helped Verstappen in his victory. The changes to the flaps allowed him to enter the right window and therefore be able to manage the race."
Red Bull in trouble? The problem is different
Marko's statements may raise a doubt: Is Red Bull in trouble? For the second weekend in a row, the Milton Keynes team found themselves no longer dominating as before. The gaps have narrowed, and everyone is much closer to the reigning champions. As in Melbourne we talked about isolated case, the same can be said for Suzuka. The Austrian team had brought a great update package. However, the rain in FP2 completely changed the teams' plans. Plus, the Red Bull drivers they were unable to fully understand the behavior of the car with the new components. All this was confirmed by Helmut Marko himself: “After Melbourne, Max was very motivated. Unfortunately, however, he was not happy with the setup all weekend. The qualifying lap wasn't ideal either, but it still allowed us to take pole. During the race we encountered high temperatures, which have always been in our favor. But this time it wasn't like that. The cause is most likely the upgrade package we brought to Suzuka. Furthermore, we couldn't test it fully because the second session was an unknown for everyone. Nobody lapped, because it was too dry for the intermediates, but too wet for the slicks."
ARTICLE BY FRANCESCO ORLANDO
Source statements: PlanetF1
