The danger for Red Bull in its Barcelona F1 team orders choice

From 46 (drivers’) and 49 (constructors’) points down leaving the Australian Grand Prix last month, to leading both 2022 Formula 1 world championships heading to this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. It’s been quite a turnaround for Red Bull.

The gaps were in a sense artificially inflated – because the Bahrain double DNF and Max Verstappen failing to finish in Australia too meant Ferrari and Charles Leclerc got free passes to romp ahead in the standings.

PLUS: Why Mercedes' Spanish GP gains weren't as grand as they seemed

Reliability has been significantly improved in modern F1, with the teams forced to make parts last longer on cost grounds and in doing so adding impressive extra resilience to their machines, so much so that a frontrunner suddenly dropping out has become a very rare thing. But the risk of a failure is always there – especially with new chassis layouts per the 2022 regulation changes meaning different engine packaging.

And finally, Ferrari has been struck down – twin turbo and MGU-H failures stopping Leclerc just when it seemed he was sauntering to an easy Spanish GP victory. Additional problems for both squads this year can’t be ruled out.

But even if Leclerc had gone on to win at Barcelona unopposed – and there’s nothing to suggest he would not have done, with both Ferrari and Red Bull claiming to have encountered decent tyre degradation this time, the deciding factor in the latter’s wins at Imola and in Miami – there was a pretty good race throughout the field. Rarely said of Barcelona…

The best of the action centred on Verstappen’s struggles to pass George Russell, with his intermittent DRS opening meaning the world champion’s attacks couldn’t be made in the same way each lap across the first part of the race’s second stint.

But Verstappen wasn’t the first Red Bull driver to have a go at passing the lead Mercedes in Spain. That was Sergio Perez, who had trailed Russell in qualifying and then through the opening 10 laps after the pair (plus the following Carlos Sainz) had clashed lightly at the first corner.

George Russell, Mercedes W13, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

When Verstappen was unceremoniously thrown off the road and through the Turn 4 gravel, rather shockingly caught out by a gust of wind at a point where it blew hard throughout last Sunday’s race, he ended up chasing the pair. And on lap 11, Perez was ordered to let his team-mate through.

There was nothing controversial about the call given Verstappen had been the faster Red Bull driver all weekend and had quickly closed in on Perez’s rear. But Red Bull told Perez it would “pay you back later”. And then it didn’t – twice – later in the Spanish race.

It denied Perez’s request for Verstappen to cede him position and attack Russell in what became the battle for the lead when Leclerc retired. Then, when Verstappen was charging back to the Mexican approaching the closing stages, he was ordered to let his team-mate by “if he’s quicker” because “he’s on a different strategy”.

But by allowing Perez the chance to make his own decision, Red Bull would’ve saved itself from the risk it now faces if the title fight with Ferrari does turn out to be closer than it appears to be right now and indeed goes to the wire along the lines of 2021

“That’s very unfair, but OK,” Perez said before he acquiesced, later asking for a post-race explanation of the situation.

Red Bull’s reasoning was clear. It didn’t want to risk a fight between its cars when one was hobbled by a DRS problem, there was a clear tyre delta between the two thanks to Perez’s longer middle stint and all the teams were on the edge when it came to engine temperatures in the sweltering conditions.

“The problem for any driver,” explained Red Bull team boss Christian Horner,” if they don't have the clear overview of the strategy or a race put in front of them, it's always going to be emotive to give up a lead.

“But he played very much the team game, I think he understood clearly it wasn't like a like-for-like fight, because the pace delta between the strategies was so great that from a team point of view, for me, it just didn't make any sense. Which was why we didn't let the drivers get into a fight.”

George Russell, Mercedes W13, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

By making the calls it did, at such an early stage of the season, Red Bull has walked in a PR storm (not uncommon for the team in question). It sits alongside the team’s reputation for ruthlessness on dropping drivers from its F1 teams and junior programme – which while fully deserved is also disingenuous to the support the organisation provides in the first place. And it does nothing to dispel the narrative of: ‘this is Verstappen’s team, no one else matters’.

Sometimes big calls must made. If – and it’s pretty hard to see this happening given Leclerc’s early big lead is gone and the onus is on him to hunt Verstappen down mistake-free with a package that hasn’t been conclusively proved to have solved Ferrari’s softer tyre weakness and apparently isn’t even totally reliable – the title gets decided by less than the any points Verstappen gains over Perez when ordered by, then they are vindicated.

Perez does leave himself exposed to such situations. He’s only outqualified Verstappen once this year – in Jeddah, where he was very unlucky not to win from an impressive pole. But the gap between them in the other dry qualifying sessions so far this year is 0.373s – a chasm that both Ferrari drivers regularly breach and Russell did last weekend with an inferior (although much improved) package.

The issue last weekend was that Verstappen’s pace was so great in the laps he erased Perez’s lead after his final stop – 1.33s each time – it’s hard to believe he wouldn’t have got by even if he’d had to mount a sustained attacking assault as he did with Russell. Perez surely wouldn’t have fought to such an extent the Briton did at Turns 1 and 3 – he knows contact with Verstappen is just not acceptable to Red Bull.

But by allowing Perez the chance to make his own decision, Red Bull would’ve saved itself from the risk it now faces if the title fight with Ferrari does turn out to be closer than it appears to be right now and indeed goes to the wire along the lines of 2021.

As last season’s climax approached, Perez produced sterling defence against Lewis Hamilton – some of the best driving of the campaign overall. That turned out to be pivotal in Abu Dhabi, as it delayed the Mercedes just long enough to mean calling Hamilton in when Nicholas Latifi crashed wasn’t simple.

There is now a risk that a brow-beaten Perez may not do the same again – because the feelings he had in heat of the moment in Spain return just when Red Bull needs him most, despite no doubt seeing the logic of these calls in the engineering room post-race in Spain. He is of course a professional driver and an understanding person, but that doesn’t diminish the risk of this hypothetical situation really occurring given human nature.

Ultimately, Red Bull was right with its team orders calls in Spain. But there’s a chance it could just regret them in the coming months. Because even with a standings lead and a car going from strength to strength, 2022 seems to be a season of large, sudden and often unforeseen swings – where big calls can have big consequences.

Race winner Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool