Max Verstappen will start Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix from the pitlane after Red Bull decided to break parc ferme in order to change the car spec and set-up, as well as take a new Honda power unit.
Red Bull had a disastrous qualifying on Saturday, with Verstappen only 16th and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda 19th. This was a consequence of what team principal Laurent Mekies described as taking “some more risks to see if we could give the car a bit of pace and it obviously went in the opposite direction” after struggling during the sprint element of the weekend.
The changes included reverting to an older specification of floor of the type that had been run by Tsunoda in the sprint, with Verstappen complaining he “couldn’t push at all” and the car was “sliding around a lot” in GP qualifying.
By making changes, including rolling back on some of the risky changes that improved the problematic ride of the car but cost grip, it’s hoped that the performance in the race will be stronger and allow for a better result than struggling for pace after starting from the eighth row.
Speaking after qualifying, Verstappen had given short shrift to the idea a recovery was possible with the car unchanged.
“Where we are starting, that’s not going to work,” he said when asked whether there was the chance of salvaging something in the race. “With these kind of performances, forget about it.”
However, the introduction of a completely new power unit including all elements, which takes Verstappen beyond his allocation for the year, might prove to be the most significant change as it will also give him extra flexibility across the final three events. That would have triggered a grid penalty but this is not a factor in a case where breaking parc ferme has already led to a pitlane start.
Team-mate Tsunoda will start from the ninth row of the grid, moving up two places from qualifying as Haas driver Esteban Ocon is also starting from the pits.
