Verstappen: Was the DRS issue in Barcelona caused by weight loss?
During the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen encountered an issue with his DRS. A mechanical problem which could be caused by his team's desire to reduce weight on the RB18.
In Formula 1, especially this season with the new regulations, weight is a critical factor. A few kilograms less can result in a considerable time gain on the clock. Therefore, teams are looking for ways to reach the minimum weight required by the FIA, which is 798 kg.
If Williams, for example, like other teams, has chosen to remove paint from their FW44 to gain precious milliseconds, Red Bull seems to have gone too far in this quest for weight loss.
During the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was unable to activate his DRS on numerous occasions, especially when he was chasing George Russell’s Mercedes. Christian Horner believes that this issue may be due to an overly ambitious weight loss goal on the RB18. “Obviously, a more thorough analysis needs to be done. Of course, we are searching for every ounce of performance and weight is also a factor. We might have been too ambitious in that aspect,” Horner revealed.
But I think we need to understand exactly what the problem is. We thought we had a solution but, unfortunately, it didn’t prove to be a reliable solution for the whole race.
On his side, Max Verstappen ensures that he did everything to make his DRS work. There’s nothing you can do because, I mean, I’m not stupid, once you have the light and the activation beep, you press the paddle. If it doesn’t open, there’s clearly a problem. I pressed it about 50 times at one point on the straight and it just wouldn’t open […]. I tried different things: staying off the rumble strip, on the rumble strip, opening it a bit later, but it was just broken or malfunctioning.
A problem that nevertheless did not prevent the Dutchman from securing his fourth victory of the season.
