Posts tagged Red Bull
RedBull hope to be back on pace with new F-Duct
Jun 22nd
With McLaren now top of the driver and team standings, RedBull have to dig deep to find the pace this weekend in Spain. Valencia is a circuit that will suit the McLarens, with long straights and slow corners, the track will play into the hands of McLaren.
McLaren have been very busy in the leadup to recent races further developing their car and have constantly been bringing new ‘bits’ to the race. RedBull however have not done this for a couple of races now. Adrian Newey was not present at the Canadian GrandPrix, instead he opted to spend time at the factory perfecting the team’s new F-Duct system. RedBull planned on using the system earlier then now, but have decided they need more time in the factory perfecting it before fitting it to the RB6. Valencia will be the first race that the team uses their new F-Duct.
Whether or not the F-Duct will solve the lack of straight line speed the RB6 has is yet to be proved but with such a big upgrade, the RB6 is expected to be more on the pace this weekend then it has been in the last couple of races.
Sebastian Vettel seems confident that the F-Duct is a very important addition to the car for this weekends race. He briefly spoke to German sport publication, Bild about the upgrades.
“..with the F-duct system we are getting an important part on the car,” he said.
“Our technical chief Adrian Newey did not come to Canada in order to put the finishing touches on the new system at the factory,”
Christian Horner also added to Sebastians comments, stating: “The track [Valencia] has fast corners which should suit our car,” …” And if it [F-Duct] works, we will go even faster on the straights.”
It’s important to note that while Valencia has some quick corners it also has some very slow sections of the track at the end of long straights, in essence it has some elements that favour both the McLarens and the RedBulls, but if the RB6 can slightly improve its car this weekend we may see the team again being ahead of McLaren.
We are now at the pointy end of the season, with a bunch of solid European rounds coming up it is vital that the RB6 bounces back now in order to stay in the hunt for the title.
Three on the Trot for Webber in Turkey
May 29th
Mark Webber has bagged a qualifying hatrick by claiming pole postion for the Turkish Grand Prix.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing this weekend for the Aussie. On Friday an engine failure in practice was played down by the team but it did mean less time on track for Mark. The during 3rd practice on Saturday Mark had a issue with the throttle system on the RedBull which saw him crawl back to the pits under idle and not record a time.
Vettel was a step ahead of Mark, recording better times during Q1 and Q2 however Sebastian locked a front wheel in the dying stages of Q3 and lost time, as a result he lost time and only narrowly finished in p3 splitting both the Mclarens. Mark had an excellent final run in Q3, lighting up the middle sector purple. He managed to beat Lewis hamilton to pole by more then .1 of a second.
Fernando Alonso had a dreadful day, making a mistake in Q2 and unable to recover he was knocked out and will start tomorrows race from 12th position. It continues a string of bad luck for Fernando who was forced to start from pitlane in Monaco due to a heavy crash in practice. Filepe Massa however was able to get his Ferrari into the top ten and will start from 8th place for the race.
Hamitlon was 2nd and Button 4th, making it an all RedBUll and Mclaren front two rows. Lewis Hamitlon said he believes they are in a good position tomorrow, claiming he felt the McLaren had very good race pace. Lewis noted it was a boot for the team and that he expects their pace to improve further when more ‘bits’ arrive for the car in the coming races. With Lewis Hamilton notoriously quick off the line it will be a made dash to turn1 with the Briton now doubt expecting he can beat Webber through the first turn.
Sebastian Vettel was upset about the front left wheel of his car. He said he locked the front wheel briefly under brakes, which usually wouldn’t be much of an issue, however the wheel for some reason stayed locked up and as a result he ran wide. Vettel spent some time inspecting the car as it was parked in parc’ ferme and was clearly not happy with his Q3 performance. He was quicker then Mark in the earlier session and no doubt was expecting to claim pole in Turkey, let alone be starting from the 2nd row.
The Big shock of the day was Michael Schumacher who bottom out int he high speed left hander and as a result lost control of his Mercedes. Schumacher had to park the car and is now left with enormous flatspots on his tyres. Michael will have to start the race on his damaged tyres, but since he recorded a time earlier in Q3 before his spin, he will start the race from 5th place just ahead of his team mate Nico.
The complete time sheet from all the sessions is below:
1. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:27.500 1:26.818 1:26.295 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.667 1:27.013 1:26.433 3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:27.067 1:26.729 1:26.760 4. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.555 1:27.277 1:26.781 5. Schumacher Mercedes 1:27.756 1:27.438 1:26.857 6. Rosberg Mercedes 1:27.649 1:27.141 1:26.952 7. Kubica Renault 1:27.766 1:27.426 1:27.039 8. Massa Ferrari 1:27.993 1:27.200 1:27.082 9. Petrov Renault 1:27.620 1:27.387 1:27.430 10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.158 1:27.434 1:28.122 11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:27.951 1:27.525 12. Alonso Ferrari 1:27.857 1:27.612 13. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:28.147 1:27.879 14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.534 1:28.273 15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:28.336 1:28.392 16. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.460 1:28.540 17. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:28.227 1:28.841 18. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:28.958 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.237 20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:30.519 21. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:30.744 22. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:31.266 23. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:31.989 24. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:32.060
Vettel pips Webber to take Pole in China
Apr 18th
Sebastian Vettel - Photo: AFP
It was another RedBull 1-2 in qualifying in Malaysia with Sebastian Vettel edging out Webber to snatch pole during the dying seconds of Q3 while Alonso slipped to 3rd on the grid. Mark recorded the fastest lap of the session just as the chequered flag came down, he couldn’t have another shot. Nobody beat his time until Sebastian who had been struggling all weekend with slow sector1 times suddenly put in a purple sector1 time (quickest time of the session) and from there he maintained his pace to take pole and edge out Mark by less then 3/10ths for a second.
The usual suspects were knocked out at the end of Q1, luckily this time Ferrari and McLaren made sure they stayed with the pack. There was nothing unexpected either about Q2, Michael Schumacher only just scrapped in to the top 10 to make it through to Q3, he maneged to go one better in Q3 and qualify 9th on the grid ahead of Adrian Sutil in the Force India.
Mercedes however are very pleased with Nico Rosberg putting his car on the second row of the grid in P4, just one place behind Alonso in the Ferrari and ahead of both the McLarens of Button and Hamilton. This put a very large smile on the faces of the Mercedes team members, it was no doubt a very important occasion for the team finally out-qualifying both of the McLarens. Mercedes tomorrow will be focussed on maintain their grid position and have a strong finish ahead of the McLarens and even a podium for Rosberg who has been consistently quicker then his 7-time world champion team-mate all season.
Massa is P7 behind the Mclarens, followed by Kubica in the Renault who was expecting to have a slightly better result but still happy.
The forecast for Sunday’s race is similar to last years Chinese Grand Prix….Wet. Rain is expected to fall during the day and afternoon but may be clearing towards the end of the race. Sebastian Vettel last year recorded his first win of the season during the rain affected race in China. The season up until then had be dominated by Brawn, but Vettel is a specialist in the wet. So it’s good news for RedBull who seem to dominate int he wet, once again they have locked out the front row but just a reverse in driver order from the last race.
Webber needs to work on his starts, especially in the wet conditions. There is ever chance he will be passed by Fernando Alonso at the first corner if he doesn’t have his wits about him. The RedBull team knows how important it is for Mark to start well and give his team mate a buffer to the Ferrari.
The full result from Q1, Q2 and Q3 are below:
| Pos. | # | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1?36.317 | 1?35.280 | 1?34.558 |
| 2 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1?35.978 | 1?35.100 | 1?34.806 |
| 3 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1?35.987 | 1?35.235 | 1?34.913 |
| 4 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1?35.952 | 1?35.134 | 1?34.923 |
| 5 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1?36.122 | 1?35.443 | 1?34.979 |
| 6 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1?35.641 | 1?34.928 | 1?35.034 |
| 7 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1?36.076 | 1?35.290 | 1?35.180 |
| 8 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1?36.348 | 1?35.550 | 1?35.364 |
| 9 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1?36.484 | 1?35.715 | 1?35.646 |
| 10 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1?36.671 | 1?35.665 | 1?35.963 |
| 11 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1?36.664 | 1?35.748 | |
| 12 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1?36.618 | 1?36.047 | |
| 13 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1?36.844 | 1?36.149 | |
| 14 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1?37.031 | 1?36.311 | |
| 15 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1?37.044 | 1?36.422 | |
| 16 | 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1?37.049 | 1?36.647 | |
| 17 | 22 | Pedro de la Rosa | Sauber-Ferrari | 1?37.050 | 1?37.020 | |
| 18 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1?37.161 | ||
| 19 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1?39.278 | ||
| 20 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1?39.399 | ||
| 21 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1?39.520 | ||
| 22 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1?39.783 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1?40.469 | ||
| 24 | 20 | Karun Chandhok | HRT-Cosworth | 1?40.578 |
Barcelona wraps up with McLaren, Ferrari & Red Bull all contenders
Mar 1st
Another dry day in Barcelona on Sunday marked the final day official pre-season testing in Barcelona and it was a day full of the top teams all trading top times whilst drivers worked on final setup of the cars.
All the times were very close, with the top 8 times all being within less then 1 second of each other. Massa, Hamilton and Webber traded top time throu-out the day, with the fastest man in the end being Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren with a 1:20.472. Hamilton spent a lot of time behind the wheel, notching up over 130 laps. Mark Webber was second fastest and did less then half the laps of Hamilton. He showed that RedBull has a very fast car this year when he recored a 1:20.496.
Massa was 3rd quickest just infront of Force India’s Adrian Suttil. Red Bull were the only team who had both their drivers for this year in the top 5. Sebastian Vettel was 5th quickest with a 1:20.667. Sebastian managed to do around 10 more laps in the car then Mark Webber managed. Sebastian’s fellow countryman and seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher recorded 1:20.745 in the MercedesGP car to claim the 6th fastest time of the day.
Most teams were doing race distance simulations through the day and spending a lot of time measuring tyre wear.
RedBull allowed webber and Vettel to share the drives during the day due to both drivers having less time behind the wheel throughout testing, so they didn’t complete the same race distance simulations some othe teams did. None the less both of their drivers were on the pace placing in the top five.
With McLaren, RedBull, Ferrari and Mercedes all within a second of each other and holding out the top 5 spots on the timesheets. It appears the predictions that the title race this year could be a tight 4-way battle between said teams could prove to be true.
Massa emerged posative and said “We wanted a competitive car and I think we’ve achieved our goal. It’s difficult to say who worked best. Today the time sheet says Hamilton, but we’re all very close together, it’s just tenths of a second.” He did however mention that whilst they were very strong, he felt at this point they weren’t the strongest and needed to improve, but was very happy to be in the group of front runners.
Meanwhile, Michael Schumacher said “The four testing days here in Barcelona have helped us to make significant progress with the MGP W01 and I am feeling quite confident for the start of the season. It is always difficult to read too much into testing but knowing our programme, it is fair to say that the times did not always reflect the true picture. We have worked through many set-up and development evaluations this week and gained valuable information to study before Bahrain. We are heading the first race with a good feeling and we know that we will have our upgrades there. But most of all we know that our prospects for even the first races are looking very reasonable now.”
So at the end of the day, what do the times really mean? Well it is hard to judge, but the pace of the Ferrari’s, the McLarens, the RedBull’s and even Mercedes has been consitent thorugh-out the pre-season testing.
Massas is less then confident that his team will be the team to beat going into this season, however they have done more race-distance simulation and varying fuel load runs and varying tyre choice stints then other teams and they are still at the pointy end of the timesheets. Their car has also been very strong without many technical problems. They seem to have the pace and it appears that Ferrari are going to be one of the fastest teams in 2010, that cobined with obvioius reliability means the team should be a very strong title contender.
RedBull have had the apce, but not the ditance, meaning they have spent the least amount of time on the track compared to the otehr front runners. Engine reliability is also an issue for the team. They have the apce but could be let down by reliability.
McLaren were quickest over testing and have two very strong drivers. That combined with the reliability they have shown could mean that they are the team to rain on Ferrari’s parade and could also snatch the title this year.
Mercedes are also up their rounding out the top 4 teams. They have shown good strong pace at times, then also shown their pace can be a bit inconsitent. The team won last years championship and may not have done enough development on their 2010 package to fight with McLaren and Ferrari.
Time will tell however, with just 11 days left now till the first Friday practice in Bahrain, the teams have no more time for on-track testing. Will the practice sheets in Bahrain be reflective of Barcelona? most likely, yes.
A summary of the quickest laps from the final day in Barcelona are as follows:
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 1:20.472 134
2. Mark Webber Red Bull 1:20.496 61
3. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:20.539 114
4. Adrian Sutil Force India 1:20.611 100
5. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:20.667 76
6. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:20.745 123
7. Rubens Barrichello Williams 1:20.870 84
8. Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber 1:20.911 67
9. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso 1:22.135 88
10. Robert Kubica Renault 1:23.175 107
11. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus 1:25.251 65
12. Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing 1:26.160 49
A wet day of tests in Jerez
Feb 11th
Rain affected the day of testing at Jerez on Wednesday. The fastest times of the day were set very early in the morning before the first drops fell and fromt hat point on the times were never going to be beaten with all teams on inters and full wets for the rest of the day.
It was the first chance the world had to se RedBull’s RB6 in action, however it was a disapointing day RedBull. The RB6 stopped out on the track and brought out the red flag due to an oil leak. The team tok that car back to the garage but then spent a large amount of time working on he car, even removing it’s floorpan. Webber didn’t return to the track until 45 mins prior to the end of the day.
Despite this setback Webber did manage to put 50 laps in, all be it in mostly wet conditions. Mark remained upbeat however.
“It was a pretty positive feeling actually,” said Webber “It wasn’t exactly a clean day of testing with the changeable conditions but that is the same with everyone.
Webber admitted that the team was going to be doing a shakedown of their car over the next few days, and do not intend to even ‘look’ at lap times until later in the month. He said that the car felt as it should on a wet day in Jerez, but did hope for dry weather tomorrow so that they could continue their shakedown.
Engine reliability has been the only variable that could be the downfall of the RedBull team. The Renault engine was no-where near as good as other engines on the grid in 2009 and it could be the soar point of the team again in 2010. Regardless of the team and drivers remaining upbeat about todays test, the fact that and oil leak let them down was not a good first outing.
The day in contrast was far better for the MercedesGP team who were finally able to knck Ferrari off their perch and claim the fastest time of the day. Nico Rosberg put some strong laps in early in they day before the rain set in and his time was obviously not beaten. The times however may not mean much with most teams evidently concentrating more on shakedown and development rather then trying to prove pace.
McLaren tried to water down the concern onlookers had to the large metal rig stuck to the side of the car, used for measuring windflow and aerodynamics and comparing it to CFD and wind tunnel data.
Virgin Racing were also present for the first time, however they spent most of the day waiting for the fitment of new parts to the car and in the end.
Timo Glock only managed to venture out for 5 laps before the end of the day, not surprisingly coming bottom of the times on a day where thankfully the timesheet really didn’t mean much anyway.
Most teams are hoping for fine weather tomorrow as they continue their shakedowns.
For those interested, the times from today are below:
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:20.927, 57 Laps
2. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:21.031, 84 Laps
3. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:22.243, 118 Laps
4. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:22.895, 88 Laps
5. Kamui Kobayashi, BMW Sauber, 1:23.287, 55 Laps
6. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:24.947, 68 Laps
7. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India, 1:24.968, 71 Laps
8. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:25.440, 27 Laps
9. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:26.502, 50 Laps
10. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:38.734, 5 Laps
Ricciardo and Hartley confirmed as reserve drivers
Jan 26th
RedBull have announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be their reserve driver this year, while Brendon Hartley from New Zealand will be the reserve driver for Torro Rosso,
Ricciardo had a very successful 2009, becoming the British Formula 3 Champion and then going on to top the time sheets driving Red Bull’s Formula1 car during the young driver tests at Jerez at the end of last year.
Hartley on the other hand was the third driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso briefly last year, but was later replaced by Jaime Alguersuari.
Red Bull said in a statement: “Daniel and Brendon will sit-in on the briefings and debriefs, attend driver meetings and familiarise themselves with the everyday workings of the garage and pit wall,”
The two drivers most likely won’t see much time in the cockpit unless their role as reserve driver is required at a GP due to limited testing this year, however it is still a very good stepping stone for both drivers on their way to potential full-time F1 drives.
The Red Bull and Torro Roso Formul1 teams now employ 3 drivers form neighbouring countries, Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo from Australia whilst Brendon Hartley is from New Zealand.
Ricciardo has mentioned in an interview with Western Australian press that Mark Webber is one of his idols, Daniel may just be the man who replaces Mark at RedBull when that time comes.
Red Bull won’t be at the first round of tests in Spain starting next week, instead they will be focusing more on the development of the car at their base.
Day Two at Jerez (updated)
Dec 2nd
The second day of testing at Jerez is underway right now Ricciardo, Conway, Ericsson, Bianchi and both the Force India drivers are back for their second day.
UPDATE:
We have new times as at 13:07 Local time in Jerez.
Paffet has out paced Ricciardo in the McLaren.
- 1 G. Paffett (GB / McLaren) 1:18.718-44v
- 2 D. Ricciardo (AUS / Red Bull) 1:19.243-45v
- 3 P. Di Resta (GB / Force India) 1:19.411-58v
- 4 M. Conway (GB / BrawnGP) 1:20.267-55v
- 5 E. Gutiérrez (MEX / BMW-Sauber) 1:20.450-38v
- 6 H. Tung (CHN / Renault) 1:21.492-67v
- 7 M. Bortolotti (ITA / Toro Rosso) 1:21.761-23v
- 8 N. Hulkenberg (GER / Williams) 1:21.814-53v
- 9 J. Bianchi (FRA / Ferrari) 1:23.340-63v
UPDATED:
New times posted at 12:06pm local time:
1 D. Ricciardo (AUS / Red Bull) 1:19.243-38v
2 P. Di Resta (GB / Force India) 1:19.411-44v
3 G. Paffett (GB / McLaren) 1:19.535-34v
4 E. Gutierrez (MEX / BMW-Sauber) 1:20.450-26v
5 M. Bortolotti (ITA / Toro Rosso) 1:21.761-23v
6 N. Hulkenberg (GER / Williams) 1:21.814-42v
7 H. Tung (CHN / Renault) 1:22.003-51v
8 M. Conway (GB / BrawnGP) 1:23.049-37v
9 J. Bianchi (FRA / Ferrari) 1:23.517-37v
A provisional time table at 11:17 local time is as follows:
- 1 D. Ricciardo (AUS / Red Bull) 1:19.243-30v
- 2 E. Gutiérrez (MEX / BMW-Sauber) 1:20.450-20v
- 3 G. Paffett (GB / McLaren) 1:20.503-21v
- 4 P. Di Resta (GB / Force India) 1:20.724-28v
- 5 M. Bortolotti (ITA) Toro Rosso 1:21.835-18v
- 6 H. Tung (CHN / Renault) 1:22.003-46v
- 7 N. Hulkenberg (GER / Williams) 1:22.149-22v
- 8 M. Conway (GB / BrawnGP) 1:23.049-27v
- 9 J. Bianchi (FRA / Ferrari) 1:23.517-30v
We will be bringing you more updates as they develop, please follow our tweets for instant updates
Todays drivers will be:
BMW – Esteban Gutierrez (MEX)
Brawn GP (Mercedes) – Mike Conway (GBR) and Marcus Ericsson (SWE)
Ferrari – Jules Bianchi (FER)
Force India – Paul di Resta (GBR) and JR Hildebrand (USA)
McLaren – Gary Paffett (GBR)
Red Bull – Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Renault – Ho-Pin Tung (CHN)
Toro Rosso – Mirko Bortolotti (ITA)
Williams – Nico Hülkenberg (GER)
Daniel Ricciardo, the next big thing from Down Under.
Nov 26th
Twenty year old Daniel Ricciardo from Perth, Western Australia has got what it takes to be an F1 superstar. Not only has he got talent, but he’s also got the look.
He is not shy and admits his only goal is to become the Formula1 World Champion. Make no mistakes he is well on his way to achieving his goal.
His favourite circuit is Spa-Francorchamps, Ayrton Senna is his idol and Formula1 is not just a dream, it is an obsession and it will be his future.
This year Daniel won the British Formula 3 World Championship driving for Carlin Motorsport. He placed first at the all-important Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps rounds and he wowed the fans by recording three wins in his first four races.
His Idol, Ayrton Senna won the British Formula3 championship in 1983. When he was asked what it felt like to be the British Formula3 Champion, he replied with “It feels bloody awesome.” He hasn’t lost any of his Aussie flair.
Earlier this month Daniel visited RedBull’s F1 headquarters in Milton Keynes which is also where Daniel now lives. He attended a seat fitting and spent some time practising in the teams F1 simulator. Next week however will be the most important week of his life so far as he makes his Formula1 test debut with the RedBull team at Jerez circuit in Spain.
When asked what he thought of his F1 test, Daniel said “No way did I think I’d be getting this at the end of the year, …this is something I’ve dreamed about since I can remember, so I’m really looking forward to it.”.
Daniel will be playing an important role for the team next week since their signed drivers for next year (Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel) will not be allowed to get into the car until February 2010, due to the testing ban for seated drivers. It will not only be a good test of Daniel’s on-track abilities, but it will also test how he interacts with the team and works with the engineers and is able give them valuable feedback.
After a bad race at the Macau grand prix where he crashed out of the race from starting 5th on the grid, Daniel will be even more focused on making a good impression. He has already announced that he will be racing next year in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship. If all goes well next week, chances are that he will be driving in Formula1 in one to two years at the most.
We will be following his progress at Jerez next week, good luck Daniel mate!
