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albers sees verstappen plus after screwing up engine red bull

Former F1 driver believes Red Bull are hiding pace: 'They do it often'

24 August at 07:48
  • Ludo van Denderen

It was not exactly a satisfying Friday for the Red Bull Racing camp ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix. Helmut Marko, for example, stated in a conversation with GPblog that Max Verstappen was trailing McLaren and Mercedes in both the short and long runs. That would not bode well for the tens of thousands of Dutch fans hoping for a win from their home hero this weekend.

But not to worry, Christijan Albers seems to say in De Telegraaf's podcast. After all, the former F1 driver had noticed two things during free practice, which he said implied that Verstappen might be in better shape after all than what appeared. "They had less engine power, they do that more often," the former F1 driver and team boss said. "And two; they were not using their DRS. I saw that. That really makes a difference."

What are the Pros and cons of fully utilising engine power?

At Red Bull, it is quite normal for the Honda engine not to be fully opened up fully on the first day of a Grand Prix weekend. Just as often, it happens that on Saturday, Red Bull seems to perform much better, as, for example, the engine is opened up then. Teams like Mercedes and McLaren use this method less often and, according to Albers, there is an explanation for this.

"You have the disadvantage that if you use more engine power, you show your speed much faster. But the advantage is that you are at the limit of the car much quicker, giving you more time to fine-tune. If you only go to the minimum weight in FP3 and you go to the maximum to simulate such a qualifying run, you have very little time to work on the setup. Then you go into qualifying cold because you don't know where you stand. If you then go more in that direction already on Friday, you can change a bit more," Albers argues. 

Will the Dutch driver's assumption be right? We will find out for certain when qualifying rolls around later today.

This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon