A former aide of Max Verstappen, Blake Hinsey has recently opened up on the Dutchman and his team, Red Bull’s weak link. Hinsey, who worked as the Red Bull driver’s performance engineer, focused on the slow cornering speed of the RB-19 that cost them the Singapore GP win.
Hinsey revealed during the Autosport podcast show, “Red Bull now needs to look at where they can improve. And one of those areas is at low speeds. Max himself recently talked about this, and the data also makes it clear that Ferrari is better in slow corners. If they solve that, it will be terrifying.”
While Hinsey was talking about Red Bull’s drawbacks, he also mentioned McLaren and Ferrari’s advantage against the defending champions. He mentioned that McLaren possesses incredible potential to come right at the Austrian team next season.
On the other hand, Ferrari has a great cornering ability that allows Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz to carry much faster speed around the slow-speed corners. Therefore, if the Italian team is able to find speed in high-speed corners and work on their reliability, they might also pose a serious threat to Christian Horner’s team.
Hinsey believes Red Bull need not to worry much about Sergio Perez
Hinsey, Verstappen‘s former ally, has also focused on Perez’s form off late. The former F1 engineer is of the opinion that as long as Max Verstappen keeps delivering the way he is doing right now, Red Bull don’t have to worry about the Mexican driver.
However, he also called out Perez’s lack of consistency up front. He said, “If you look at the performance this season, it is clear that Max is stronger over one lap and over a race distance. If you don’t qualify at the front, you can’t compete.”
Nevertheless, Perez’s poor form will start to become a problem when the rivals begin to catch up and Red Bull will be under pressure in the Constructors’ championship.
Therefore, Perez needs to perform in order to keep his team happy and keep challengers such as McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Aston Martin at bay. Otherwise, the seat might go to Daniel Ricciardo who is waiting in the wings to have the Red Bull opportunity.
