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Windsor full of praise for Red Bull chief

Windsor full of praise for Red Bull chief

23-11-2022 19:13 Last update: 22:14
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GPblog.com

Peter Windsor impressed Charles Leclerc at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver was on the same strategy as Max Verstappen, but the Italian racing team's car is not the strongest in terms of tyre management. Still, the Monegasque managed to keep the hard tyres good, eventually keeping Sergio Perez behind him in the battle for second place in the championship. He also praised Adrian Newey in his analysis.

Windsor analysed the race on his YouTube channel and saw that there was nothing wrong for Verstappen throughout the race and called it a great day for the two-time world champion. "He looked untroubled for most of the way. Spoke a lot after the race about tyre management and how focused he had been on tyre management throughout the race. Started on the medium, one stop." The journalist therefore also finds it clever that Leclerc was able to use the same strategy and set good lap times.

Verstappen indicated fairly early in the race that the tyres stayed good for a long time. Windsor does not find it so strange that the Dutchman did not go through his tyres so quickly. The Dutchman also still advised his teammate to push hard because by now he understood that the tyres would hold up well through the race. Windsor does see a big difference. "That was with the RB18, which we know is beautifully balanced and much more aerodynamically efficient car than Ferrari. So a different race Leclerc was having to drive, drive on the absolutely limit without [hurting] the tyres more than he needed to."

Newey

During the first races of the 2022 season, the Ferrari was still the fastest car, but eventually Red Bull Racing managed to turn the tide. The Austrian racing stable has one man to thank for its dominance this year. "Adrian Newey in particular behind that gem of a car. When the regulations changed, everyone approached it in different ways. Nobody had heard of porpoising and there it was for most of the teams", Windsor concludes.