F1 News: Red Bull Finds Another "Exploit" As More Performance Ready To Be Unlocked
Red Bull's recent upgrades this F1 season have seemingly placed them ahead of the competition, notably at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen demonstrated significant dominance ahead of the likes of Lewis Hamilton. These advancements have given the Milton Keynes team a substantial lead in points, with the Dutchman nearing historic winning streaks.
Toto Wolff of Mercedes acknowledges this shift, highlighting yet another exploit that the team has found.
Red Bull’s Defining Moment at the Hungarian Grand Prix
Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren have been relentless in their pursuit of Red Bull so far this season. Mercedes unveiled their B-spec W14, Ferrari showcased sidepod changes, and McLaren executed a significant revamp that put them almost at the top of the grid. But when the energy drink racing team took the covers off their substantial update during the Hungarian Grand Prix, featuring expansive sidepods and re-shaped letterbox inlets, the game seemed to change.
That weekend, Max Verstappen exhibited a dominance reminiscent of his performance at the season's onset in Bahrain. Fast forward a week, and Belgium bore witness to a similar supremacy.
Red Bull's Resurgence in Numbers
With Verstappen boasting a staggering 125-point lead over his teammate, Sergio Perez, and Red Bull sitting comfortably with a 256-point advantage over Mercedes in the Constructors Standings, it’s evident that their latest enhancements obliterated any notion of the competition catching up, at least for now. Their 12th consecutive victory and 13th overall not only overshadows Mercedes' previous best streak of 10 but also shatters McLaren’s 1988 record of 11 successive wins.
Wolff has mulled over the surge:
“I don’t know whether our dominance was similar or less as I think we had years where we did it in the same way, but at least we had two cars that were fighting each other,” he told the press. “So that caused a little bit of entertainment for everyone, and that’s not the case at the moment.
“It is what it is and I often say that it’s a meritocracy and it’s up to us to fight back. Did we expect that gap? Certainly not. I think with the last step of the upgrade, it seems they have another advantage that they that were able to exploit.
“But again, it always gets me back to the point of we have just got to dig in and do the best possible job.”
The Road Ahead for Red Bull’s Competitors
Compounding concerns for those vying against Red Bull, Helmut Marko shared with Sky Deutschland post-race revelations that suggest the true performance of Red Bull’s update is yet to be fully realised.
“[Red Bull] have not yet fully exploited the potential of our upgrade," he admits.
Development has been key this year, and the war between teams has been just as raging in the factories as on the track. But with Red Bull seemingly a million miles ahead of the second fastest team - whoever that may be right now - I don't expect their dominance to come to an end soon.