'Mercedes might have already thought Red Bull would do a two-stop'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the French Grand Prix after a clever strategy was executed perfectly. Peter Windsor wonders if the events in Baku will have had any effect on Red Bull Racing's strategy.
Baku had possible effect on Red Bull strategy
"That was a spectacular victory for Red Bull and Max Verstappen," Windsor says in his YouTube video. "But I wonder if when time passes we can see that what happened in Baku has an effect on what happened today." Verstappen lost the win due to a blowout late in the race in Baku.
"You can imagine Red Bull in the office on Saturday night after qualifying thinking about strategy and thinking, 'It's either a one or a two-stopper, we'll start on the medium tyre like everyone else.' You can imagine that after Baku they thought about whether they wanted to stay in the race for so long with whatever set of tyres they had."
Therefore, according to Windsor, it makes sense that Red Bull opted for an extra pit stop for that reason.
Mercedes had to try something else
"Mercedes may have been thinking that they would do a two-stop, because Red Bull seems to have a faster package when you talk about downforce and power. If Mercedes want to beat them they have to do something different. Everyone is starting on the medium tyre, which makes that all equal."
This is possibly why Mercedes only made one stop instead of two.