Marko: 'This went wrong at the pit stop of Verstappen with the front wing'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
The disappointing result of Max Verstappen during the last race in Turkey is not only due to him or the difficult circumstances. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admits that something went wrong when adjusting his front wing during a pit stop.
At Istanbul Park, the Austrian team deployed a new front wing. The start of the weekend seemed promising for Verstappen and the new front wing seemed to do its job. But during the race, Verstappen spun twice and lost his chances of victory. After the race Verstappen already told De Telegraaf that his front wing wasn't well adjusted and that he couldn't do much as a driver. One side was a lot steeper than the other, he said.
Helmut Marko, advisor employed by Red Bull Racing, indeed admitted to Motorsport.com that Verstappen was driving around with a wrongly adjusted front wing during a large part of the race. "With the new front wing, the thread for adjusting the adjustment goes in the opposite direction to the old one. This led to a misalignment, but this was not implemented until after the first spin."
Error from pit crew
After his spin behind Sergio Perez, Verstappen came in for a new set of intermediate tyres and wanted to adjust the front wing as well. So Red Bull's pit crew went the wrong way. One mechanic probably turned the right way, and the other the wrong way. This resulted in a skewed front wing.
The spin of Verstappen behind Perez cannot be explained by the front wing, according to Marko. "When you drive so close behind someone in the bend, it is clear that you lose the downforce altogether."