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Verstappen and Red Bull suspected by rivals of overcooling fuel in Spain
Max Verstappen ran the risk of having his fuel over-cooled just before the start of the Spanish Grand Prix, some competitors suspect. With that news comes The Race Sunday night. If the fuel is cooled more than prescribed, a start from the pit lane follows. It did not come to that, however.
Fuel rules
Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel did suffer that fate, in the previous Grand Prix in Miami. But what about this exactly? The FIA regulations state that the temperature of the fuel intended for "immediate use" in a car may not be more than ten degrees Celsius below the ambient temperature.
On the Barcelona circuit, a temperature of 35 degrees Celsius was measured two hours before the start of the race. This means that the temperature of the fuel must be at least 25 degrees from the moment an F1 car has left the garage. The colder the fuel, the more efficient and so a minimum temperature has been set for everyone to adhere to.
The temperature of the fuel is measured once the car is in the correct starting position on the grid. Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly came out of their pit box in Spain later than the competition and on top of that, after their lap to the grid, it also took them a while to get to the right place. According to the aforementioned medium, heated discussions also took place on the grid between Red Bull's chief engineer Paul Monaghan, FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer and deputy head of single-seater affairs Tim Goss.
Ferrari asked about situation
The aforementioned medium inquired with Mattia Binotto about the situation. This is because it has also been noticed at Ferrari that Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly were rolled into their starting positions late after their reconnaissance laps. The Italian team boss is keeping reasonably quiet about it, but does state that he can imagine it had to do with the temperature of the fuel. "I can only trust the FIA," Binotto said.
Verstappen and Gasly do not have to fear a penalty that can still be imposed afterwards. Indeed, the international motorsport federation states that the fuel temperature of the cars of the two drivers in question has always been above the minimum.
