As a long-time follower of Formula 1, I am aware of the importance of strategy and tactics in motor racing: tyre choice, team orders, pit-stop timing and so on are what make the sport both unpredictable and exciting. This season we have the added frisson of the greatest of champions, Lewis Hamilton, being challenged for every point by Max Verstappen, the pretender to his title. The level of competition is extreme and has resulted in more than a few 'comings together' and contentious decisions by the stewards.
At the last (Italian) Grand Prix, Verstappen was judged to have been at fault for causing a collision between the two rivals that might well have killed Hamilton a few seasons ago: his punishment was a token loss of three grid places for tomorrow's Russian Grand Prix. We are now told that the engine of Verstappen's car was damaged during the incident.
Now the Sochi circuit is generally agreed to favour the Mercedes team: practice times yesterday seemed to confirm this, with both Perez and Verstappen way off the pace of the 'Silver Arrows'. Taking advantage of this, the Red Bull team made the surprising decision to change Verstappen's engine, resulting in an automatic relegation to the back of the starting grid, regardless of qualifying results.
Let's see this for what it really is:
- Verstappen causes a serious crash and is penalized by the stewards
- Red Bull consider Sochi a difficult circuit: almost a lost cause. This is confirmed during P1 & P2
- The team changes Verstappen's engine, relegating him to the back of the grid
- This negates the three place penalty awarded by the stewards and gives him a new, more competitive power unit for the next race and the rest of the season
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