Red Bull Racing Canada Team Review
By Ian Lockwood
June 14 2010
“We expected a tough event… we were closer than we thought.”
Car 5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: 4th, Start Position: 2nd
"I was surprised that I came in for my first pit-stop as the leader, but came out in fourth. I think everything we predicted to happen from our side was the case. The others came in early for new tyres, as we expected. Usually though, their race would then be over because they should come out in traffic, but that wasn't what happened. When we came out from our pit stop, they were ahead of us, so we need to understand what happened there. Otherwise, I had a gearbox problem from around halfway through the race, which meant I had to slow down. Also, due to lapped cars, I lost six seconds to Jenson in two laps, so I was unable to fight for the podium. But, it's good that we got these final positions. Coming into the weekend we were not the favourites, but actually we had very good pace and we surprised some people with that. We couldn't really show our real pace during the race, due to the way it unfolded, but it's promising. It's a close battle at the top of the table and, as we have seen, things can change very quickly. There is no reason to panic from our side, we have a very good car and we're looking ahead to Valencia."
Car 6 MARK WEBBER, Finish Position: 5th, Start Position: 7th
"Tyres played a huge role in the race today and, in the end, we did the best we could. I have mixed emotions after the penalty this morning (Mark took a five place grid penalty due to a gear box change). I had a good first few laps at the start, but that took its toll on the first set of tyres, so I needed to pit a little earlier than I would have liked. In the second stint I was ahead and was monitoring the gap to Lewis. I was moving away a bit at the start, as he was pacing to get to the finish. I was trying to keep my pace constant, but in the end the tyres didn't want that pace and they go away from you. It's virtually impossible to keep the tyres from degrading here, no matter how slow you drive. In the end it wasn't really a surprise to come back out from my second pit stop in fifth, as I knew people in front had been packed up tightly behind Lewis. We then turned the car down to save it for the next race. We expected this to be a tough event and in the end we were closer than we thought. I wanted to get some champagne today, it didn't happen, but we'll be back."
CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal:
"It was an interesting race this afternoon. We tried something different strategically with the hard tyre, but despite managing to get our cars into a one- two position, we didn't have the pace to pull away on the hard tyre. We adopted different strategies for the two cars in the middle part of the race, putting Sebastian onto the soft tyre while putting Mark onto the hard. Unfortunately, halfway through the race, Sebastian had a gear box related issue, which we had to manage to ensure the car got to the finish. Mark finished just behind him after starting seventh on the grid. We shouldn't be disappointed with fourth and fifth, they are still valuable points in both Championships and they have been gained at a circuit that we always knew we would be exposed at."
FABRICE LOM, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support:
"In terms of the result, it wasn't such a great weekend. We scored some points, but not as many as we expected after yesterday's qualifying result. Having said that, this track is very hard for engines and the positive thing is that we had a trouble free weekend, which is encouraging."
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Surely he would want to nurse his car to the end of the race without risking breaking it further?
There are claims from some people with questionable credibility in other forums that vettel might have been joking.
It is also possible that he didnt think it was serious enough to hinder him trying for the fastest lap. The team had to really plead with him to manage the brake issue at barcelona if i remember correctly?
even considering an attempt for the fastest lap was kinda stupid really. there are no points for the fastest lap!! and i doubt whether he really didn't know that he had a gearbox leak!! don't they tell the driver what the problem is? very strange.
No points for fastest lap, but it could result in a nice prize at the end of the season...
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apparently he was aware of a problem from about mid distance of the race. so how would he manage the 'problem' if he didn't know what the problem was?
i would really like to know how this was managed as it is not self explanatory.
At the end of the day, he never went for it.
i do not fully understand the sequence of events or the logic behind not telling him what the problem was.
obviously you do so i would welcome any more details that you have as to how the team works when faced with problems such as a supposed gearbox oil leak.
Are RB ensuring Mark is ok as far as risk management given recent events
Was there an option to also manage Sebs gerabox risk pre race or did RB just take the punt on Seb, hence spreading their risk both ways
Interesting decisions if the issue was the same on both cars
Phat might know....look after the stronger driver pre race or something?
thoughts/ insight
To a driver, it probably makes little difference what the actual problem is - he is just told how to manage the situation - by changing rev limits, engine maps etc. Seb in this case was told to short shift (shortly after he had been told to try and overtake the cars in front!).
Telling him what the problem is as he negotiates an F1 circuit at full speed, whilst managing tyres etc isn't really going to add anything. Telling him he has a gearbox issue wouldn't really help him any more either - so why bother? The radio mid-race isn't the best medium for a long winded explanation about which component(s) within the gearbox are under suspision, how serious the issue is, and what the consequences are likely to be.
As a driver you just want to know what you can or can't do. Seb asked whether it would be possible to go for the fastest lap, the team informed him that it wasn't, so he didn't - end of story.
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if he has a leak and the box overheats it could seize and cause a very nasty accident.
i simply find it strange also that webber was closing on vettel and they told him to turn the engine down, why do that? he could of, without too much effort, passed vettel and picked up another couple of points. once again why? it would have been possible within a couple of laps and i doubt whther or not that would have compromised his engine for valencia.