Peter Windsor is extremely surprised by the fact that after qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix there was a lot of talk about the luck that Max Verstappen had with Nico Hülkenberg’s slipstream. According to the Brit, this detracts from the quality of the Red Bull Racing driver’s pole lap.
After qualifying, Verstappen made no secret of the fact that he was looking for the slipstream of Haas driver Hülkenberg. According to many, the Dutchman mainly owed his pole position to the help of his German colleague, but that is not the case with Windsor. This does a great disservice to the reigning world champion.
“If you look at the mini-sectors that F1 reveals, you can indeed see that Max flies past Hulkenberg through a slipstream and has a very fast run to the first chicane,” Windsor begins on his YouTube channel. ‘He does gain some, but over the entire first sector he was only 0.066 seconds faster than during his first attempt in Q3. And only part of that can be attributed to the tow, so we’re talking about very little gain.”
Moreover, Hülkenberg’s slipstream was not crucial for another reason according to Windsor. ‘Even if he (Verstappen, ed.) had driven the same time in the first sector as in his first attempt in Q3, he would still have been in pole position. He was anyway faster than Oscar Piastri in the second and third sectors,” Windsor analyzes.
Piastri also received a small tow
Windsor also noticed that almost no one talked about Piastri’s last lap afterwards, because the McLaren driver, who would later receive a grid penalty for hindering Kevin Magnussen, also had a small advantage from an opponent’s slipstream. ‘Oscar also had a purple mini-sector in the first sector on his fastest lap in Q3. He had to pass Daniel Ricciardo there.’
“I am convinced that Daniel, for obvious reasons, did absolutely nothing to help Piastri,” Windsor said, referring to Piastri taking Ricciardo’s place at McLaren after the 2022 season. ‘But anyway, Piastri was 0.042 seconds faster in that mini sector. Yes, Max went a little faster through Hulkenberg, but it was one of the best qualifying sessions and that’s why we saw one of the best performances from a pole winner, whether it had been Max or someone else. So, in my opinion, all this talk about Hülkenberg’s tow only detracts from Verstappen’s great pole lap,” says Windsor. “It was one of the best laps I’ve seen in a long time.”
2024-05-22 10:10:00
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