Alex Albon reckons a “grey area” over braking in the middle of corners to hold up following cars during races will eventually cause a crash, in response to Kevin Magnussen’s defence at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Magnussen was running on a contra-strategy to the majority of the field to get track position on a long hard-tyre stint, and had attempted to keep a following pack of Pierre Gasly, Albon, and the two Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll behind him.
The Dane was eventually flooded by overtakes at the end of lap 39, with Albon being heard to remark on team radio that Magnussen’s defence had been “dangerous”.
The timing of Albon’s radio message appeared to focus on the Haas driver’s exit of Turn 14, to which TV commentators appeared to give short shrift, but analysis of Magnussen’s throttle and brake traces show Albon had reason to be aggrieved.
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GPS data shows that Magnussen lifted off more compared to other drivers over the 39th lap before being overtaken. Using Nico Hulkenberg’s same lap as a benchmark, given he was running in free air at the time, offers a datum point for how a representative car can be driven on a lap of the Zandvoort circuit.
Albon began the lap 0.4s behind Magnussen, but lost a half-second to Magnussen in Turns 2 and 3; the latter braked for Turn 2 earlier, stalling Albon out between it and the banked Turn 3 as the Williams driver could not get fully on the throttle for the intermediate stretch. Both Hulkenberg and Magnussen managed this.
More obvious is Magnussen’s throttle trace through the Turns 4-5-6 uphill sweepers, where he was at less than 80% throttle through Turn 4 (Albon and Hulkenberg are both flat) and then fully lifts off in the middle of Turn 6. Again, Hulkenberg is fully flat at this point, while Albon has to lift slightly in response to Magnussen. On the exit of the corner, there is around a 25kph (15.5mph) difference in speed between Magnussen and Albon.
This forces Albon to brake slightly earlier for Turn 7 than usual. Since Magnussen is slower into the corner, he brakes less, but nonetheless earlier than Hulkenberg’s equivalent braking trace for the right-hander.
Magnussen is fully off-throttle for a brief moment again on the exit of the corner, again forcing Albon to release the throttle pedal once again in response to the Haas ahead of him. This again occurs sooner than either Magnussen or Hulkenberg would usually come off-throttle for the corner.
Furthermore, Magnussen lifts for Turn 11 far sooner than the equivalent braking point of Hulkenberg. Their throttle traces also differ in the T11-12 chicane, as Magnussen took the corner in second gear to back the pack up while Hulkenberg uses a small squirt of throttle – in third gear – to accelerate. The two also have a 35kph (21mph) speed difference in Turn 13, and Magnussen subsequently lifts to just over half-throttle through the banked Turn 14.
The final lift could not stop the swarm of cars from overtaking him, as Stroll also squeaked past on the entry to Turn 1 as Albon, Gasly, and Alonso got past before the start-finish line.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“It was a little bit like Jeddah, playing the team game,” Albon said. “Kevin’s an unbelievable team player, and I give him full credit to it. But I don’t think it gets policed that well.
“And there’s a bit of a grey area between what is correct in backing up a group of cars. In this case, for me, it was fairly marginal. There are some really quick corners, turn seven, turn eight, the final corner, and he was braking in the middle of them.
“So you turn in flat and then suddenly you have to stand the brakes and avoid it. That’s, I think, crossing the line a little bit, but it’s grey.
“And part of the issue it’s not really being policed that often, I had the same situation in Monaco with Yuki (Tsunoda) during the race, and I was complaining – that they felt it was okay. The problem is, at one point, there’s going to be a crash.”
Pierre Gasly agreed with Albon’s sentiment, stating that the Williams driver had to lock up in Turn 12 to avoid hitting Magnussen’s car.
The Frenchman reckoned he had never seen someone lift in the banked Turn 14 before, and was simply pleased to get out of the pack in front and unscathed.
“I’ve never seen someone lifting in turn 14, or putting first gear [sic] in Turn 12,” Gasly mused.
“So, I think Alex got very close to him – he locked up mid-corner turn 12 when K-Mag was downshifting, when you should be almost full throttle.
“And then, in [Turn] 14, I opened the DRS, and all of a sudden he was doing his side. So it was quite clear what he was trying to do for Nico. In the end, I managed to get out on top of that group.
“But at the time, I think my heartbeat was quite high. But I’m happy I managed to get out of here and beating the pack.”