Q: What do you make of all the continued controversy at Red Bull? Red Bull is all about brand and seemed to put this to bed. But then there was the leak, but from what I have seen on that, it seems a nothing burger. My wife even surmised that Red Bull themselves orchestrated the leak to demonstrate there was not a lot going on here. Now Jos Verstappen seems to be orchestrating his own coup?What is really going on? To a certain extent, it is more interesting than the racing. Maybe they need some manufactured story lines for next season’s “Drive to Survive”?
Jeff Smith, State College, PA
CM: I certainly don’t think it’s manufactured given the damage it has done to some reputations, but the Jos Verstappen comments were certainly interesting. I’m not sure what the end game is there, but it tells you where he stands on Horner and highlights the power struggle going on. Jos insists he wasn’t behind the leak, and if that’s accurate then it means someone else is also out to topple Horner.
It’s all playing out against the backdrop of infighting for power within Red Bull GmbH itself, following the death of Dietrich Mateschitz. There are new people in place in high-level management positions and they will all have their own views and allegiances, but the Thai ownership — representing the majority 51% shareholding — backs Horner.
What I make of it is that something’s got to give, and it is feeling increasingly like either Horner goes — something that looks less likely now — or Max Verstappen could end up moving elsewhere if he backs his father’s stance. That would be remarkable given the success he’s had and the fact that Red Bull clearly has the quickest car, but it does feel like something’s got to give.
Q: Congratulations to Red Bull on the opening one-two finish in Bahrain. However, I have to ask this question: For all the millions spent, aren’t the other nine teams embarrassed about their performance? I sure would be.
Steve
CM: I actually don’t think so, based on how close the field is overall in raw pace. One second covered all 20 cars in Q1, and you’ll naturally get a much bigger field spread once they’re fighting in a race and unable to run at their optimum pace (unlike Verstappen out front).
But the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren were all actually relatively upbeat on one front, because they have all made significant progress compared to 12 months ago. The on-track gap might have been substantial but all three have cars they are much happier with and that are performing more as they expected, meaning they are moving in the right direction and putting the building blocks in place to be more of a threat to Red Bull in the future, which is all they can do at the moment.
Q: I’ve been watching NASCAR races over the past few weeks while awaiting the start of the IndyCar season. They seem to once again be experiencing regular problems with the single lug wheel lug in the Cup Series. Could someone explain why they use a system where they have to line up a dozen pins? It seems very different from the wheel hub/lug system in IndyCar. From my research on the Great Google, the IndyCar and F1 systems look similar — and distinct from the Cup system. Can someone please summarize the three systems and their relative strengths/weaknesses?
Fred M, St. Louis suburbs
KC: I wouldn’t say “regular” problems. Sunday was the first wheel issue — at least, that came off the car. Kyle Busch’s team didn’t get the wheel tight a few weeks ago but he made it back to pit road before it came off. Most of the lug nut problems have been operator error. Chris Buescher’s tire changer didn’t get the lug nut tight, which then worked itself off when at speed and the wheel came off. We’ve seen many of those since this lug was introduced and it’s no different than wheels coming off when there were five lug nuts.
The changers are not used to working with a single lug, so it’s a different procedure and feel when they are working on the wheel. The single lug needs to be motionless for the changer to be able to tighten it. If not, it just spins the gun. With the five lugs, changers could start popping those lugs off before the wheel had stopped moving and the car was jacked up. And they’re trying to be fast, right? Mistakes happen. There have been times when it’s been a lug or gun problem. Not everything is perfect. The lug nut that got stuck on the 23 car for Bubba Wallace was most likely over-tightened and then during the run, got further stuck because of the heat build-up.
NASCAR moved to this system because it needed something stronger with the bigger wheels on the Next Gen car. The five lugs could not hold up with the load put on the new car. From what I understand, the operations across the series are pretty much the same (albeit tweaks for that particular vehicle) but at the end of the day, it comes down to the human equation of speed and execution.
MP: On the F1 side, the regulations allow teams to use captured wheel nuts, which make changes faster. The choice on how many drive pegs to use on the front and rear wheel hats/brake rotor assemblies is not something I can speak on from a rules standpoint with F1, but what you see there is the same idea as we have in IndyCar.
IndyCar wheel nuts aren’t captured in the wheels, so those are removed independently from the wheel and manually placed back on the stub axles. As for why they all use drive pegs, it’s how the wheel is interlocked with the front brake disc so the wheel doesn’t continue to spin when the brakes are applied, and the same goes for rear brakes/transmission axles where the pegs on the car side and the chamfered holes on the wheel interlock and slow the wheel under braking or accelerate the wheel when power is applied.
THE FINAL WORD
From Robin Miller’s Mailbag, March 5, 2014
Q: I was thinking of the many underfunded IndyCar teams that have come and gone over the years, but then there’s Dale Coyne Racing. He has survived over 30 years with limited resources. I know one reason he’s been able to stay alive over the years is that he has hired pretty good shoes: Paul Tracy, Adrian Fernandez, Buddy Lazier, John Paul Jr., Sebastian Bourdais and Justin Wilson, just to name a few. What do you think of Dale’s longevity and the reasons why he’s been able to buck the fate of other underfunded race teams?
Gerry Courtney, San Francisco, CA
ROBIN MILLER: Coyne is smart, frugal and quite a survivor. But he’s confounding. He finally won a race with Justin and Bill Pappas and then couldn’t keep them together. He then brought them back together for 2012, but now Pappas has gone again. Coyne did manage to win Detroit last year with Mike Conway, no testing, a solid little squad and the engineering of John Dick and Pappas. But now both those engineers are at RLL. Dale doesn’t believe in bidding wars so maybe that’s his strength.