F1 pundit suggests Red Bull made MISTAKE in Verstappen retirement

Bernie Collins has pointed out a significant mistake that Red Bull made after Max Verstappen retired from the Australian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman suffered his first DNF for two years on lap three Down Under following a rear right brake failure.

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It brought a streak of nine consecutive race victories to an end and denied him a chance of beating his own record set in 2023.

For now, the Milton Keynes based outfit remain on top of the constructors’ standings by four points over Ferrari headed into the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka.

But could Red Bull have avoided letting the situation escalate sooner than it did – thus giving Verstappen a chance to remain in the race?

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What could Red Bull have done differently?

Sky Sports pundit Bernie Collins believes that a breakdown in communication led to Verstappen being ruled out from the race when perhaps more damage could have been avoided.

“What surprises me is that there was no action in advance of the temperatures getting that hot,” she told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “Maybe the temperature sensor is not reading, whatever, we don’t know what is going on.

“Even on comms or radio, there’s no discussion saying, ‘we can see your rear right is getting hot.’ There’s no discussion even about the tyre pressure going high.

“There’ll be loads of indications that that rear right was too hot. And the first indication that we at least see of it, is Max reporting it on the radio,” Collins continued.

“So, there’s a lot to go through there to check because it would amaze me if they couldn’t have seen it in temperatures or pressure in advance and taken some sort of action.

“Of course, you don’t want to stop a guy that is leading the race so early on, but that would’ve been better if there was any chance of rectifying it than the way it finished. So, they will be annoyed because they will have destroyed a load of components around it."

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