Does Crimson Bull’s downturn in type coincide with the departure of their chief technical officer Adrian Newey? – Steve
Sure, it does. However that is not the query – the query is, has it been attributable to it? Correlation and causation aren’t essentially the identical factor.
The statistics make for attention-grabbing studying.
Newey remains to be employed by Crimson Bull. However his final race working in any capability on F1 was Miami, again in early Might.
Verstappen’s common ending place for the races as much as and together with Miami, not together with retirements, was 1.2. Since then, it’s 3.3. In qualifying, he was averaging first as much as Miami and three.1 since.
As for team-mate Sergio Perez, race outcomes as much as Miami have been a median of third, since then it’s 8.5. In qualifying, it was 2.9, since then eleventh.
These numbers are stark.
However is that this attributable to Newey’s departure? Verstappen was requested whether or not Newey’s position altering had had an affect on outcomes on Thursday in Monza.
He mentioned: “Usually not. Because it was introduced, it has been harder but it surely should not matter if somebody is leaving on the spot that instantly the efficiency drops, as a result of the automobile has all the time been the identical.”
After the race Verstappen was requested the identical query, and his reply was barely completely different in tone.
“I’ve all the time mentioned I might have appreciated Adrian to remain,” Verstappen mentioned. “At all times. However it’s not about that now. Final yr we had a terrific automobile, that was essentially the most dominant automobile ever, and we mainly turned it right into a monster, so we’ve got to show it round.”
Staff principal Christian Horner was additionally requested whether or not shedding Newey had had any influence on the actual fact Crimson Bull had misplaced their means with the automobile.
He mentioned: “I believe we’d have had all these points as a result of they have been already there, and one man’s enter may by no means be so dramatic so rapidly. This began to essentially spotlight itself in Miami, and Adrian was plugged in up till Friday of Miami.”
The purpose, although, is that Newey has not been plugged in since. It was put to Horner that maybe Newey may need been capable of see a means out of Crimson Bull’s issues sooner.
Horner mentioned: “Properly, he’d be working with all the identical folks. F1 is a group sport, it is a group problem and the group will give you a decision.”
There can, after all, be no definitive reply.
However Crimson Bull have misplaced the talents of the best designer in F1 historical past, a singular perception into the influence of aerodynamics on an F1 automobile. A person who additionally has famend expertise as a race engineer, and a refined understanding of precisely what a racing driver wants from a automobile to be quick.
It is laborious to think about that has had no influence in any respect.
