Toto Wolff’s complaint about Nikita Mazepin in Spain and Red Bull team manager Jonathan Wheatley’s call to red flag the Baku race delivered the kind of team emotion behind the scenes that previously remained hidden.
But the realization reached a new high in Friday practice at the French Grand Prix, when both Mercedes and Red Bull F1 Race Director Michael Masi urged to change the sausage curbs at the exit of Turn 2.
This was because a number of drivers had driven over them during the day and the damage to front wings and other pieces of carbon fiber increased.
First, Mercedes sports director Ron Meadows complained, pointing out the excessive fine his team was facing because of the curbs.
“Those yellow rumble stripes at the exit of two did a lot of damage to our car,” he wrote to Masi. “You’re just too aggressive.”
Masi replied quickly, “That’s the 50mm we usually have in many places, Ron.”
Meadows then replied, “All I’m telling you is our car is rooted because we flew over it and we can’t say, ‘Well you shouldn’t go there’ because it’s worth tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of pounds Damage if you walk a meter too wide. “
Without a moment’s hesitation Masi came back: “It’s a little more than a meter, but I’ll take a look. Thank you.”
In the afternoon session, it was Red Bulls Wheatley who went on the radio to reconsider the curbs after Verstappen once ran too far and lost part of his front wing that the team wanted back.
“It was interesting to watch the cars go through the second corner and think of the yellow curbs at the exit,” said Wheatley.
“We’ve just done a lot of damage to our car and I’m pretty sure Max didn’t end up there on purpose. It just seems like such a huge penalty for a little indiscretion by the driver.” I was wondering if you would consider removing half of it. “
Masi quickly replied that the curbs were not a new addition and had been there in 2019 without any complaints.
Wheatley added, “We know these cars use different areas and if you look at those long runs they don’t even go near them. Like I said, it just seems the penalty for running over what could be a timing loop is around £ 100,000. “
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB16B
Photo by: Drew Gibson / Motorsport Images
But Masi ended the conversation with: “I think I’ve also heard some team bosses and drivers ask about their physical limits, Jonathan … I’ll see everything tonight.”
Masi’s response was almost certainly directly related to comments from a number of high-profile figures, including Red Bull Motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, who asked that the addition of walls or gravel pits could have avoided controversy over the track boundaries earlier in the season.
But Masi held what he’d told the teams down Friday night and inspected the curbs to see if they needed to be removed.
In the end, he decided not to take it away. Indeed, the lessons of Friday’s car damage meant that drivers drove off well for the remainder of the weekend.
Masi pondered why he had made the decision to keep her, saying that the fact that the curbs were way out of the track, as well as a recent urge for more physical deterrents, were key to his decision.
“There are probably a number of elements in that,” Masi explained.
“For one, these curbs were the last time we were here in 2019. Second, they were more than two meters from the edge of the track, so you had to be completely off the track to actually come into contact with them.
“But they were checked at the drivers briefing on Friday night after the discussion. I went over and looked at them physically at Turn 2 to see for myself that everything was correct.
“But more importantly, as we’ve heard on a number of occasions, especially this year, they want physical limits and that is clearly a physical limit.
“After coming from two street circuits in Baku and Monaco, it’s pretty clear that there are physical limits and it was the same under the circumstances. And to be fair, there were no problems at all during the race.”
F1 almost certainly hasn’t had its last controversy over track restrictions, but standing firmly on Paul Ricard’s curbs, Masi shows he’s ready to commit to what he thinks is best, even if it is not all teams like it.
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