Over the first eight rounds of the year, Red Bull spoke more than anyone else about this weekend’s technical directive.
The Milton Keynes squad were adamant that harsher flexi-wing restrictions would eat into McLaren’s advantage.
Christian Horner even revealed that Red Bull’s objective was to stay within 25 points of the Championship lead after Monaco – anticipating they would become more competitive in Spain.
First conclusions about the full impact of this new directive cannot be made until after today’s Grand Prix.
Still, the first indications suggest that Max Verstappen still lacks the machinery to fight McLaren on a level playing field.
Verstappen settles for third in Spain qualifying
Ironically, qualifying for the Spanish GP was the biggest difference between Pole Position and second place.
The gap was still relatively small, just over two tenths. Regardless, this statistic exemplifies the negligible impact of the flexi-wing clampdown so far this weekend.
McLaren remain the fastest car, even at a circuit that is better suited to the RB21 than previous races.
Verstappen was always a few steps behind the McLaren duo in qualifying, which is becoming an increasingly familiar story.
The good news for the Dutchman, as he pointed out in his post-qualifying interviews, is that he is within striking range of making a move into Turn 1.
Despite this, Verstappen admits that Red Bull were fundamentally not fast enough on Saturday:
“It was fine, I think it was consistently the same delta behind. So [in] Q1, Q2, Q3.
“Just my first one in Q3 was a bit more difficult because we tried a different out-lap approach and that didn’t work.
“But yeah, clearly just lacking a bit too much. Sector 1 was quite tough. Turn 1 was never really good, even though I tried different approaches
“But just didn’t seem to find the grip there. The rest… It was fine. The car was in a decent window.
“Unfortunately, not fast enough, but I had fun out there.”
Red Bull hope to capitalise on strategic flexibility
There have only been a few races this year where tyre degradation has forced teams into making multiple stops.
Even at circuits that are traditionally harsh on tyres, such as China, the one-stop was the best strategy.
This is the consequence of Pirelli’s tyres – especially the hards – being capable of completing the majority of the race.
At the Spanish GP, things should be slightly different. Although the hard tyres can still complete a significant portion of the race distance, they are much slower than the softs and mediums.
As a result, completing just one stop with hard tyres could be slower than a two-stop using softs and mediums.
Moving forward, Pirelli are considering bringing hard compounds that are two steps harder than the mediums – to create a bigger delta.
Returning to Verstappen and Red Bull, the prospect of multiple pit-stops in Barcelona will be welcome news.
Strategic variety can offer the kind of unpredictability and complications to help counteract McLaren’s advantage.
Putting strategy to one side, Red Bull could yet find themselves within touching distance of McLaren on race day.
At the very beginning of the season, one of the MCL39’s main strengths was tyre conservation.
In Imola, however, Christian Horner’s team were able to match the reigning Champions in this area.
Therefore, especially in the wake of the technical directive, there are still questions to be answered at today’s Grand Prix.
Main photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images (via Red Bull content pool)
