Max Verstappen was not a lot desirous about speaking after Components 1’s Mexico Grand Prix in regards to the controversy over his double penalty as a result of it was nowhere close to his largest fear.
In actual fact, it was not misplaced on him that, whereas his 20-second punishment robbed him of an opportunity to battle for a podium, he knew that his Purple Bull was unlikely to be up there even with out the sanction.
Whereas he had managed to qualify on the entrance row, and even lead early on, Verstappen shortly came upon that the final word tempo was not there – particularly on the medium and laborious compounds.
“The issue is that we’re too gradual, and that is why I am being put in these sorts of positions,” he stated of the controversial battle with Lando Norris. “That’s my drawback.”
That Verstappen ended up sixth, 59.558 seconds behind race winner Carlos Sainz, did owe quite a bit to his punishment.
However when you dig a bit deeper into the info of his efficiency – and pull out the affect of time misplaced within the pits – then the state of affairs will not be really any higher. In actual fact, in pure knowledge phrases, it could possibly be argued that Mexico was Purple Bull’s worst race of the season to date.
Top-of-the-line methods to correctly consider the pace of automobiles is to have a look at their race tempo, and see the way it stacks up in opposition to the opposition.
Utilizing knowledge that has been helpfully collated by web site f1pace.com, we will pull out some key data to point out us how Verstappen’s tempo stacks up in opposition to the opposition throughout the season to date.
These are primarily based on pure racing laps run at pace, so the primary lap will not be counted and neither are these when drivers are both coming into the pits or leaving the pits. Laps accomplished below the Security Automotive and Digital Security Automotive are additionally discounted.
Going via the season, we will present how Verstappen’s race tempo stacked up in comparison with the quickest non-Purple Bull rival.
* Engine grid penalty meant he began eleventh
Primarily based on the above data, this knowledge can then be changed into a proportion determine to provide us a baseline of Purple Bull’s relative race tempo over the course of the marketing campaign – with Australia eliminated as a result of Verstappen was a DNF.
Because the beneath graph exhibits, Verstappen’s season has been going within the unsuitable route.
The information clearly exhibits two-step adjustments over the season. From its dominant begin, Purple Bull fell again to going toe-to-toe with McLaren in Miami, and because the British Grand Prix, the development appears to be of it dropping additional backwards.
And whereas the Mexico determine of 0.73% adrift is in numerical phrases the worst of the season, it is extremely just like what the workforce delivered in Monza – which steered that when there isn’t any downforce at play, the RB20’s weaknesses get uncovered much more.
Cynics at different groups would have beloved Purple Bull’s race tempo to have fallen away dramatically because the Singapore GP weekend, when rivals turned alerted to its entrance bib adjuster – which some steered might have been used to assist alter its journey top between qualifying and the race and higher stability tempo throughout each periods.
However the knowledge doesn’t appear to again that up and means that Purple Bull’s kind has simply steadily drifted backwards as different squads have made positive factors.
The difficulty in Mexico seems to be extra tyre-related than anything – with the Purple Bull simply not getting the toughest of the compounds into the fitting working window.
As Purple Bull workforce boss Christian Horner stated: “On the laborious tyre, we simply did not have the identical tempo. Max had no grip, we did not really feel we may change the tyres on.
“In order that’s the most important problem within the subsequent 4 days, to know what brought on that.
“Clearly, Brazil is a really totally different problem to this circuit, however it’s a sample that significantly on the finish of stints, you see the McLaren could be very sturdy – significantly on the finish of grands prix.”
With a 47-point hole between Verstappen and major title rival Lando Norris, plus Ferrari in resurgent kind, Purple Bull is aware of that it must shortly flip a nook in its kind.
And, whereas Mexico has triggered some worries, it’ll hope that some venues developing that play to the high-speed aero effectivity Purple Bull strengths that have been proven in Belgium will maybe assist it get throughout the road.
As Helmut Marko instructed ORF: “We won’t afford one other race like this.
“We now have to seek out pace – and it is no secret that we’re at present shedding out to the competitors, particularly Ferrari and McLaren, within the gradual corners.
“However we now have two tracks, Qatar and Las Vegas, the place issues ought to be higher once more. And if we now have the traditional set-up occasions, then we’re not as far-off from the leaders as we have been this time.”
