The head of Red Bull Laurent Mekies spoke about why the team led by him did not resort to the delaying tactics of the McLaren drivers at the end of the Abu Dhabi GP.
Although during the final race of this season, Max Verstappen could nurture his hopes of the title until the last meters, as the laps continued, his chances decreased a lot, when Lando Norris repelled the attacks of Charles Leclerc and clearly held the third place, which was enough for him to win the world championship.
Still, Red Bull had one more option to mix things up: try to instruct Verstappen to slow down the McLaren driver behind him, giving Leclerc a chance to attack.
However, Red Bull did not resort to this tactic, which Lewis Hamilton unsuccessfully tried in 2016 in a fight with Nike Rosberg.
The head of Red Bull Laurent Mekies after the Abu Dhabi GP, which eventually brought the title to rival Norris, explained why the team led by him made such a decision.
“It was possible to do it. But we didn’t feel it was the right choice for us. I think we would have lost a pretty big lead,” said Mekies, as quoted by Sky F1’s website.
“We also didn’t think that this tactic could bring any advantage given the situations we were in, so we decided to maximize the advantage we had and focus on winning the race. We told ourselves that we can’t control what’s behind us,” added the French engineer, adding that the team discussed the possibility of a delaying tactic.
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