The world champion of F1 in office, to the century Max Verstappen, had another certainly not idyllic Friday. As announced by the weather reports, the first day of free practice in Canada on the track of Montrealwas heavily affected by the rain which gave very little time to the team to carry out their respective work programs. At the end of free practice 1 and for about fifteen minutes of the second free practice session, the teams managed to test the dry compounds, thanks to the rapid evolution of the track which surprised everyone a bit.
There was a legitimate concern that the resurfacing of the track could make driving difficult in light rain conditions and leave the classic oil film on the road surface in damp track conditions. None of this occurred, but Jupiter Pluvius gave no respite and the variable intensity of the rain made the little data acquired by the researchers not entirely reliable team. In Red Bull’s case the rain was probably a godsend. In the Fp2on the single-seater of Max Verstappen a problem occurred to the ERS.
A headache promptly reported by the three-time world champion of F1 who smelled a burning smell inside the cockpit. A sensation confirmed first by the images of the international director, from which smoke could be seen coming from the rear of the number 1 car and subsequently confirmed by the crew’s typical safety procedure, when an anomaly occurs on the electrical part of the car. A disconsolate one Verstappen he quickly got out of the cockpit, and then observed the operations of the mechanics who, once they had identified the nature of the fault, began to dismantle the RB20.
The alarm bell in the house Red Bull is quite serious, as precisely on the occasion of the North American stage, on the single-seaters of Verstappen And Perez the third was approved power unit complete in all its components. The problems on the Dutch driver’s car concern the ERS (Energy Recovery System, ed.) which identifies the electrified component of the hybrid powertrain. The two electric motors are part of it MGU-K And MGU-H the battery pack ES (Energy Store, ed.) and the electronic control unit THERE IS.
If downstream of troubleshooting it will be determined that it needs to be replaced ES or CE, Hasselt’s talent could automatically serve a penalty on the starting grid, having already reached the maximum number of homologations during the F1 season for both components (two, ed.). In an absolute sense the rain had a big hand Verstappenas the information collected during Friday in Quebec they did not provide the usual court of conspicuous information.
F1, Red bull: Horner calm about the performance of the RB20
Despite Red Bull is no longer the steamroller of the past campaign, Christian Horner he didn’t seem very upset at the end of the first (difficult) day of weekend in Canada. At the microphones of television stations, the manager English confirmed that the problem accused by Verstappen regard the ERShowever appearing confident that the technical problem will be resolved in time, to allow the leader of the standings to regularly take part in the third free practice session.
The CEO And team principal of the Austrian team of F1, admitted that it was a real shame not to be able to take advantage of the second hour of free practice. However, the adverse weather conditions helped Red Bullbecause they largely thwarted everyone’s work program competitor. Horner believes that the system failure ERS has not damaged other components of the power uniteven if in the next few hours the engineers of Milton Keynes will have to identify the causes of the failure.
Regarding the handling of the RB20with reference to the behavior of the car on curbs, Christian he explained that the car showed good behavior in the few laps done, but that there is a lack of reliable data to understand the validity of the updates and at the moment we are based exclusively on feeling Of Verstappen. Horner you see Mercedes in the fight at the top, together with Ferrari And McLaren. However, he thinks that any assessment is premature, as it was not possible to analyze the car F1 properly in dry conditions.
F1, Canada: Verstappen very worried
The three-time world champion appeared in a completely different mood at the end of the very short second free practice session. The pilot of the Netherlands regrets not having been able to carry out the rounds foreseen in the work programme. Verstappen explained that it will be vitally important to understand the cause of the failure and what implications it may have on the rest of the weekend and even for the following races of the season.
Alarming statements, attributable to a fault that has probably already occurred and could therefore recur randomly if its origin is not discovered. We just have to wait and try to understand what will happen in the third and final hour of free practice which will precede qualifying, where all the teams will try to give their all to grab the best starting grid position towards the Canadian Grand Prix.
Author: Roberto Cecere – @robertofunoat
Images: Oracle Red Bull Racing
