Breaking news
Formula 1 Monaco GP
Newey defends Red Bull's Monaco pit strategy
Red Bull technical boss Adrian Newey has defended the team's strategy calls in Monaco, and insists that it wasn't clear whether pitting first or second would be the most successful option for the its drivers.
Adam Cooper
Edited: May 31, 2017, 5:35 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were running in fourth and fifth behind Valtteri Bottas in the early stages of the race.
The team called in the Dutchman first – forcing Mercedes to react with Bottas – and subsequently Ricciardo stayed out for five extra laps, during which he put in some impressively fast times.
When he finally pitted he had jumped both his team mate and Bottas to claim third.
Verstappen made his frustration clear over the radio, and a similar situation unfolded at Ferrari, where Sebastian Vettel got ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, inevitably leading to claims that the Italian team had favoured its main title candidate.
However, Newey insists that it was not as clear cut as that, and that both Red Bull drivers knew before the race what the likely strategy was.
The team had not run the supersoft all weekend, saving a single set for the race, which added to the uncertainty.
"We discussed it before that if we were struck behind Bottas with our two cars, then we would split them," he told Motorsport.com.
"It wasn't clear before the race which was more powerful, the undercut or the overcut. The undercut got the warm-up on the first lap, the overcut depends on you having more natural pace.
"It was close. The undercut almost worked. Unfortunately we had a slightly slow pit stop [with Verstappen]. It was one of those judgement ones.
"Obviously if you're going to do one undercutting and one overcutting, whoever's ahead has the best chance of an undercut, so that's what we did."
Regarding Verstappen's frustration, he said: "We discussed it before the race, we said to both drivers in all honesty we don't know which is the better solution, the undercut or the overcut, and they both accepted it.
"It's the usual thing, when a driver gets out of the car he doesn't understand, his adrenalin is still up."
Newey said Red Bull's form in Monaco was encouraging as the latest updates paid off, although he concedes that the next two races in Montreal and Baku are likely to be more challenging, as power unit performance will be at a premium.
"Suffice to say we are likely to be less competitive in the next couple of events," he said. "They have similar characteristics, although not as extreme as Monza.
"At the moment we've been reasonably clear as third-best team. Obviously we've now got to try and move forwards to do more of what we did in Monaco.
"I think the car showed reasonably pace, and we've just got to keep working at it. Monaco is obviously a fairly unique circuit, but we've definitely improved the car. We had a few bits on it this weekend, to compliment what we did in Barcelona. So we've just got to keep pushing forwards."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Giovinazzi secures seven FP1 outings with Haas
Next article Mercedes needs Vettel DNF to keep F1 title hopes alive - Lauda
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Red Bull Racing
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
Formula 1 23 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Latest news
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
1 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
3 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Formula E
FE Formula E 5 h
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 5 h
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe