He sees Verstappen’s frustration with the new rules more in the poor performance of his Red Bull. “I mean, Max is really in a horror show,” he said. “If you look at the onboard footage from yesterday’s qualifying, it’s just horrible to drive,” was his clear analysis of the Red Bull’s performance. In general, he suspected that the currently losing teams could use a few tricks to improve their situation. “Let’s see what political knives will be drawn in the next few weeks and months,” he said.
The boss of the team, which finished the first two races in first and second place, has good reason for such assumptions. Some teams have already successfully protested about an alleged loophole in the rules that Mercedes is said to have used when building the engine to get a few extra horsepower. From June onwards, the FIA’s regulators will be tightening their tests on the engines in order to close the alleged loophole. Team boss Wolff is therefore warned of further rule changes due to complaints from his competitors.
However, Verstappen denied that he was just complaining about his Red Bull’s lack of performance. He would say the same thing if he won races, “because racing as a product is close to my heart,” said the 28-year-old. He again suspected similar motives in the competitors’ praises: “Some will of course say that it’s great because they win races, which is completely legitimate. If you have an advantage, why should you give it up?”
The fronts in the dispute over the new rules will probably remain hardened for the upcoming race in Japan on the last weekend in March. After all: Due to the canceled dates in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the war in the Middle East, there will be no further races throughout April. So there is enough time for the disputers to reach an agreement.
