Red Bull, cursed chassis
As explained in recent days, an evident discontent is leaking from the Red Bull camp regarding the work of technical director Pierre Wachè. The updates brought to Suzuka for the RB22 were a disaster, so much so that the drivers described the sensations felt at the wheel as poor, with Hadjar being very harsh in judging the Red Bull chassis as “terrible”.
The Germans at F1-Insider, citing internal team sources, quantified the gap to Mercedes at 1 second and divided it into 0″2 coming from the power unit and 0″8 from the chassis.
All this is increasing the pressure around Waché and it is said that the Miami updates could be a sort of last resort for the French engineer to save his own job.
Read more The rumor | Ferrari engine, the new ICE will arrive with the third power unit of the season
No ADUO?
But for Max Verstappen there could be other bad news on the way, on the ADUO front. As is known, Formula 1 has provided for extra updates for those engine manufacturers who after 6, 12, 18 and 24 Grands Prix found themselves less powerful by 2% or 4% or more compared to the reference power unit.
In this scenario, colleagues from AutoRacer.it explained that Red Bull could be excluded from the ADUO allocation at the start of the season as the engine manufactured in Milton Keynes “has an ICE at the level of the Mercedes one”. And therefore it could see Ferrari-powered teams (three), Honda (Aston Martin) and Audi benefit from developments denied to it due to the good competitiveness of its power unit.
It remains to be defined – and will probably happen in tomorrow’s meeting – when the ADUO will be unlocked for the lagging engine manufacturers, whether after Miami (sixth ‘virtual’ GP at the start of the year) or post Monte Carlo (sixth real GP).
Read more Mekies ahead of tomorrow’s meeting: “Focus on improving qualifying”
