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Red Bull is wary that parts are at a premium at the start of Formula 1’s triple-header at circuits “hungry for front wings”, after suffering early damage at the French Grand Prix.
The championship-leading team was one of many to flag the severity of the exit kerbs at Turn 2 at Paul Ricard, which caused damage to at least three cars in Friday practice.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that it was particularly punishing in the context of F1’s new cost cap for this season and the fact there are three races in a row at Paul Ricard and Austria’s Red Bull Ring (which is hosting two events) – both tracks with aggressive kerbs.
His team had even requested that a broken front wing endplate from Max Verstappen’s car in practice was returned to the team.
Horner said that was a serious request because managing parts is “very tough” and “spares are at a premium”.
“Consumption of parts is high, we’re not running big stock levels because of the cap,” he said.
“It’s a balancing act continually and [there are] three races on the trot with circuits that are hungry for front wings.
“We didn’t come out of Baku particularly flush with them following the failure in the race and Max’s incident on Saturday morning. So it is a key factor.”
Red Bull and Mercedes unsuccessfully lobbied FIA race director Michael Masi to change or remove those kerbs for the remainder of the weekend, complaining they were too aggressive and disproportionately punishing – claiming also that the cost of the damage being caused ran into six figures.
The kerbs, which are designed to prevent drivers from exceeding track limits on the exit of a high-speed corner where there is time to be gained, haven’t been changed because they were in place at the previous French GP in 2019 so are not a new design.
“It is important to find a balance,” Horner said. “The problem is the way that the kerbs are laid out there, they’re not immediately visible to the drivers, they are sort of inviting you to go there.
“It would just be nice if we found something that didn’t do quite as much damage to the car that there was a time penalty.
“This is why probably gravel is a better longer-term way to go, so there is a physical penalty other than just smashing up front wings – which in a cost cap world is obviously very expensive.”
Addressing the decision by Masi not to change the kerbs, Horner conceded it is a “difficult” situation to judge.
One of the arguments for keeping the kerbs in place is that drivers and teams have called for stricter and more consistent policing after some high-profile incidents relating to track limits abuse this season.
Speaking during FP3 on Sky Sports F1’s live coverage, Horner conceded that “if there was a wall there, the drivers wouldn’t go near it”.
He reiterated that the damage done by the kerbs is “a little disproportionate” to the mistake.
“I appreciate it is a difficult one for the race director,” he added,
“But it is expensive when you get out and wide over those kerbs.”
Red Bull’s championship rival Mercedes had been similarly vocal about the Turn 2 kerbs on Friday.
Valtteri Bottas damaged his car on kerbs he called “quite harsh” and said it is “really penalising”.
“I broke some bits in the floor and I think I wasn’t the only one,” he said. “That’s the hard limit. We can’t go further.”
His team boss Toto Wolff added: “We know the kerbs need to be in some corners so the drivers are not running too wide, but maybe these kerbs are a little bit too radical because they break cars.”
