Red Bull calls for an end to ‘party modes’ in qualifying after Mercedes and Hamilton’s Australian advantage

Red Bull has called for the FIA to end “party modes” on Formula 1 engines by ensuring drivers qualify and race with the same engine settings.

Lewis Hamilton’s significant leap in performance during Q3 in Melbourne put a sharp focus on the use of special modes by Mercedes on the laps that count, although the Brackley team and Hamilton himself continued to downplay them.

But Red Bull remains adamant that circumstances in Australia forced Mercedes to use its engine at its ultimate potential.

“They got nervous because [Valtteri] Bottas crashed, and all of a sudden they put full power on,” said Red Bull’s Helmut Marko.

“As we call it, party mode. They normally don’t need it, they used all of it, and it’s obvious that they are playing with all of us.

“In the beginning it was just us who were complaining, and it was, ‘Red Bull is always complaining’.

“Fortunately, after qualifying the others woke up, and now there’s a lot of discussions – there are so many relatively easy things to solve it, and make it more equal.

“You could say that you should race with the mode that you do qualifying with. That would be a solution.”

Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul said it would be hard to impose such restrictions, describing it as “extremely difficult” and instead suggested the focus should be on reducing oil consumption limits.