Mercedes helped by Pirelli: 'That's where Verstappen won the championship'

Lagging behind Mercedes

In the first phase of the season Red Bull Racing clearly had the better pace. After the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull had recorded five wins in a row and Max Verstappen was 32 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the championship. However, the new tyres from Pirelli shook up the ranking.

"Mercedes didn't have the same aerodynamic downforce efficiency as Red Bull in the first half of the season and therefore had more drag. That's where Max won the championship. This was due to the latest version of Adrian Newey's high-rake. Mercedes never chose that option," said Windsor in a new video.

Bad luck for Red Bull

"The new rear tyres from Pirelli gave Mercedes a more stable rear of the car and that helped them in this. Red Bull didn't, because they could already control that rear end very well," concluded the former Williams team manager.

Pirelli brought the stronger rear tyres during the season because, especially in Baku, they had seen that the tyres were simply not strong enough. According to Windsor the Italian manufacturer had already realised this in the winter, but there was not enough time and money to deliver the strong tyres earlier.