Racing Bulls will introduce an upgrade package at the Miami Grand Prix that gets immediately replaced one race later due to calendar disruptions from cancelled Middle East rounds, Motorsport.com is reporting.
Team principal Alan Permane told the outlet that Racing Bulls originally planned its first major upgrade for the cancelled Bahrain Grand Prix, which will now debut in Miami instead. A second upgrade package will arrive at the Canadian Grand Prix just two weeks later, immediately replacing the Miami components.
"We had a pretty decent upgrade planned for Bahrain, which we will see in Miami," Permane explained. "We had another upgrade planned for Montreal, so we will have a quick double hit there. There's no way to bring them both. The Montreal one we can't bring earlier, so it's a slightly strange situation where we'll bring a new, quite a decent upgrade, a new component and then almost replace it straight away."
Extended Break Creates Silver Lining
The unplanned five-week break between Japan and Miami has actually benefited Racing Bulls' preparation. The team will now have three to four sets of the Miami upgrade package instead of the originally planned two to three sets for Bahrain.
"What it's allowed us to do is have more quantities of it for Miami," Permane said. The extended break also enabled the team to complete unplanned chassis work at their factory and gave their design office a rare opportunity to see the cars fully assembled.
Championship Stakes
Racing Bulls currently sits seventh in the constructors' championship after three rounds, just four points behind fourth-placed Haas. The team is confident their upgrade pipeline will boost their midfield battle against Alpine and Haas.
"I'm very confident that we can keep up, if not do better than the other midfield teams," Permane said. "There'll be small steps almost every race, I would say, then we've got another two or three large upgrades already planned."
The Miami Grand Prix runs May 1-3, followed by Montreal on May 22-24, where Racing Bulls will test whether their compressed upgrade strategy pays dividends in the tight midfield fight.
Source: Motorsport.com
Source: Motorsport.com