The Mystery of Red Bull Crash in Turkey
The Turkish Grand Prix would surely be remembered for a long time, but not only for Red Bull and McLaren but also for several other reasons like; the race pace, the crash, the team’s favouritism, some interesting narratives and more fascinating narratives that are yet not narrated. Many controversies budded after the race. Was the Red Bull’s crash a rivalry between the team? Was it possible for Webber to let it not happen? Was Button treated by his team equally as was Hamilton? Who should have been the actual winner if no invisible hands worked efficiently? While talking about Jenson Button and the race there are some very interesting yet confusing things that could be smelled after the race.
It is a mystery but at the same time very crucial to know whether Button was given a fixed target lap time by the pitwall or not. It is important to understand this after seeing the coldness between Button and Hamilton at the finish line.
The race in Turkey was much faster than expected, as the four men leading the race consumed their fuel at a rate that uncomforted the engineers on the pitwall. Due to this, all the forerunners were asked to “save fuel”, at varying times.
As seen in Red Bull’s case Webber was asked this a few laps before Vettel was told to save fuel. At McLaren’s side, their chief engineer, Tim Goss told immediately after the race that they had set target lap times for both men and hence the instructions were given to them accordingly.
He said that both of them were given identical instructions to save fuel, and they were running through a very aggressive strategy for fuel to keep going at a good pace in the start of the race. Both the drivers were given the same target lap times, and that is the reason why Jenson was able to get too close on Lewis.
However practically what was seen on the track was not as it was told, either the instructions were different for both of them or one of them was not following.
What was visible on the track was that both of them came under 1:31 without any fail around those crucial laps at the start of the race until lap 48, but Button was clearly going further, he was seen taking big chunks out of Hamilton a couple of times who was obviously shocked when Button attempted to over pass him at the time when both were asked to save their fuel and set the same target times for laps.
As the race ended both had a different set of story to tell about the instructions given to them. Hamilton told that he was asked preserve fuel but not exactly how much to save. He tried to stick to his lap times, but soon he said he realised that he was rather too slow and Jenson was right up behind him.
However, Button adds to his part of the story stating that he was also asked to save fuel but he was not given any lap time. Now this does not even justify who is telling the truth and who is hiding the facts and trying to avoid a possible dispute.
The rate of the consumption of fuel was alarming as for the McLaren’s pitwall to handle it and both the drivers were instructed to slowdown. But as it seems now that Hamilton who already thought he had wrapped the race was told not to fight for the win explaining that if the engine was not kept down he might run out of fuel.
All the four front men, separated with just a difference of two seconds with a frightening pace. As seen here in Turkey, the racers went for such longer flat speeds that the fuel reserves were getting burnt out sooner than anybody could have expected. Had the Red Bulls not faced that crash there might have been a run out of fuel with the McLarens or the Red Bulls, as the four kept going on with the same pace.
It gives ways to various questions at this point. Who it would have been to run out of fuel the first? Who would have slowed down owing to the fuel condition? Well there are views that if there had been no crash Webber might have ended fourth. There are also questions regarding Vettel and his state of mind before and during the race. Vettel has proved that he is capable of getting poles and race wins but he needs more, much more to stand the aggressiveness of Hamilton or the passion of Alonso.
However, one can also not ignore the fact that Vettel had been short on luck lately. All throughout the season pressure has piled up on him due to mishaps with his car or his performance and now came up the crash; most unfortunate for him indeed.
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