Laurent Mekies, Ferrari Sporting Chief, claims that Red Bull enjoys straight-line speed advantage over other Formula 1 teams. He believes the advatage provide a “very good protection” cover to the team.
At United States Grand Prix, Red Bull finally won F1 constructors’ championship title since 2013. Max Verstappen won his second world championship title for the team.
The Dutch race win 13th race of the year. He shared the record with Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. The team managed to mark the 15th victory of the season.
Wheel gun failure cost Verstappen nine seconds in the pit lane. It pushed him behind Charles Leclerc, Ferrari driver, and race leader Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes. Nonetheless, he fought back to the top due to the straight-line speed advantage.
Leclerc had recovered from 12th place on the grid to find himself ahead of Verstappen. He could not keep the position provided by slow pit stop more than a couple of laps.
The Dutchman surpassed both contenders at the end of back-straight using DRS. He then maintained good gap till the end of race.
“It is not the first race where they are racing with a top speed advantage on all the other competitors,” said Mekies, the Ferrari sporting director.
“They managed to deal with that and certainly when there are some fights like today, it is an advantage. It is something that we always try to balance between lap time and top speed.
“The bottom line is they had a bit of a pace advantage today, as they did for most Sundays this year.
“They can have a very good protection from us to attack with their top speed.”
Plus: Red Bull “never stopped believing”
Victory of Verstappen at US GP provided straight eight races streak for Red Bull. The team lost the last race at Austrian Grand Prix where Ferrari won the race.
Carlos Sainz, Leclerc team-mate, started from pole position but had to retire because of contact with George Russell.
“It was a bit of a shock to lose Carlos like that after a few hundred metres. And it is quite rare to see this happen,” said Mekies.
“It is part of the game but it is a shame. Because it was a great opportunity and I think we were all – us, Red Bull and Mercedes – were all close on pace. So it would’ve been great to have been in the fight also with Carlos.”
