Red Bull manages to capitalise on aggressive strategy

By Malhaar Khaladkar

Max Verstappen took his first win since the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix in early September as chief title rival Lewis Hamilton chased the dutchman but could only manage P2 ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez- his second consecutive podium after the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix.

London, 27 October 2021: Max Verstappen won the US Grand Prix after being chased down by Lewis Hamilton the whole race as the Briton had to settle for P2, finishing just 1.3s behind the Red Bull driver. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez finished on the podium again to help Red Bull close the gap in the constructor’s championship as Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas could only manage P6 after starting P9, taking another new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). Charles Leclerc crossed the line in an impressive fourth (P4) in his Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in P5. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished in P7 ahead of ex-teammate Lando Norris in P8. Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda finished in P9 for AlphaTauri and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel rounded of the points paying positions.

Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi finished in P11 ahead of Alfa Romeo teammate Kimi Raikkonen in P13, sandwiched between them was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P12. Williams duo of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi finished in P14 and P15 respectively as did the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in P16 and P17, albeit two laps down from the leaders. Alpine suffered a double DNF with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly retired as well with a suspected suspension damage at the rear of the car.

Title protagonists Verstappen and Hamilton started on the front row with the 7-time world champion getting a better start, keeping his car on the inside of turn 1. As they exited the corner, Hamilton emerged in the lead with Verstappen settling in P2 ahead of teammate Perez. Behind, there was a three way fight going on for P5 between Ricciardo, Sainz and Norris.

It was evident that the Red Bull was the superior car as Hamilton was unable to extend his lead over Verstappen as the Dutchman stayed in and around 1s behind Hamilton. Red Bull made an aggressive strategy call to undercut Hamilton by pitting Verstappen on lap 10 for a set of hard tyres. The strategy appeared to work as Hamilton finally pitted on lap 13 for hard tyres and emerged around 6s behind Verstappen. Behind them, Perez was running his own race in P3, ahead of Leclerc in P4 and Ricciardo still maintaining P5, keeping Sainz at bay.

As Hamilton started chasing Verstappen, before the Mercedes driver could get close enough, Red Bull pitted Verstappen again for a set of hard tyres on lap 29. Seemingly too early at that stage of the race. Hamilton carried on for another eight extra laps, pitting on lap 37 and emerging around 8s behind Verstappen, albeit on fresher hard tyres.

Hamilton started to chase Verstappen as his lead diminished lap by lap. With only ten laps to go Hamilton was within 3s of the Dutchman and closing in rapidly. Hamilton was hovering around 1.5s with five laps to go as Verstappen was able to defend and not let the Mercedes driver close up, making full use of the dirty air characteristics of these turbo-hybrid cars.

Verstappen held on to victory by just 1.3s ahead of Hamilton, who even with fresher tyres found it difficult to close up and get past his title rival. With this win Verstappen extended his championship lead to 12 points over Hamilton with five races to go in the 2021 season.

Red Bull had the upper hand over Mercedes throughout the weekend as they triumphed in qualifying and the race. Even when Hamilton took the lead on lap 1, Verstappen was able to stick within 1s of the Mercedes and was able to make the undercut work. With a double podium Red Bull also closed the gap in constructor’s championship to Mercedes in first place. Mercedes lacked both qualifying and race pace. Their highly optimised rear suspension which drops the car at high speed to improve straight line speed had less effect on this circuit, owing to the circuits high speed corners where downforce is required. Mercedes also have reliability issues to deal with regarding their internal combustion engine, as Bottas took his sixth of the year and there is a possibility that Hamilton might have to take one more. The next two races coming up are Mexico and Brazil, which on paper suit the Red Bull more than the Mercedes. With the wind in Red Bull’s sails, it looks like they currently hold the upper hand in the championship.

Ferrari once again had the superior pace compared to McLaren with Leclerc finishing in P4, 24s ahead of McLaren rival Ricciardo in P5. Their new power unit has played a key role in their ascendency over McLaren as the two team are separated by just 3.5 points for the fight for P3 in the constructor’s championship. McLaren did not have the pace to fight with Ferrari this weekend, themselves admitting that the Italian rivals have now got the upper hand in the battle going into the last five races of the season.

Alpine and AlphaTauri are in a close fight for P5, separated by just ten points. Alpine had a disastrous race with both cars suffering DNF’s in the grand prix, so did AlphaTauri’s Gasly. A positive to take for the team from Faenza is that rookie Tsunoda scored points to help them close up to Alpine in the constructor’s championship. Aston Martin had a dismal qualifying as neither car made it to Q3 and Vettel’s power unit penalty meant he started from back of the grid. They struggled to find the race pace as well with Vettel just managing to scrape P10 after Raikkonen spun in the late stages of the race.

Alfa Romeo once again showed improved race pace compared to qualifying pace, with Raikkonen running in the points until a mistake and spin saw him finish in P13. Giovinazzi too was on the fringes of points paying position as he finished P11. Williams once again lacked the race pace to fight for points with both cars only beating the Haas cars.

Saturday’s Qualifying results were:

Note – Bottas drops 5 grid places for taking on a new ICE after exceeding his allocation. Vettel, Alonso and Russell start from the back of the grid after taking on new PU components.

Caption: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (33) Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda makes a pitstop during the F1 Grand Prix of USA at Circuit of The Americas on October 24, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)