An in-depth look at Red Bull Racing’s performance in the 2011 Formula 1 season so far
Red Bull Racing team has been the fastest team on the 2011 Formula 1 grid so far as neither McLaren nor Ferrari has been able to beat them in qualifying.
Even at racing, Red Bull or should we say Sebastian Vettel, has secured 6 victories in just 8 races while his teammate Mark Webber on the other hand has been finding it really difficult to cope up with the reigning world champion despite the fact that both
of the drivers are in the same team and using the same technology.
The main question that rises in one’s mind is that maybe the team is not helping Mark set up his car as much as they are helping Sebastian. There is a huge difference within the same team’s drivers as Webber and Vettel were pretty much on an even keel until
the end of the 2010 Formula 1 season.
This year on the other hand, Webber has been around 5 tenths behind his teammate during the qualifying sessions at some of the races.
Same is the case with Ferrari as Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have a noticeable margin in terms of qualifying pace.
Since the beginning of the 2011 season, Vettel has been scoring some outstanding results. At the Australian Grand Prix firstly, he secured the pole position before taking the win while Mark Webber on the other hand, scored the 5th place in the
race after starting from 3rd place on the grid.
This was a satisfactory result for the team in terms of qualifying as both of the drivers showed almost equal potential but still, the reigning world champion’s time was around 8 tenths of a second faster than the Aussie’s.
Two weeks after that, Vettel was at it again as he secured another pole position/race win combo while Webber scored the 4th place this time after starting from 3rd position on the grid once again.
The following race in China was quite disappointing for the team and it seemed that this season might not just be a one-team show after all since Lewis Hamilton won the race ahead of Sebastian Vettel who started from pole for the third time in a row.
Overall, it was a good weekend for the team though as Webber finished on the podium for the first time and gave the team a decent result.
However, it did not take time for Sebastian Vettel to recover as the young German won the following Turkish Grand Prix after scoring yet another pole position. His teammate scored the 2nd place and at this point, it seemed that Webber is progressing
with each race and he might just be able to compete alongside his teammate.
Webber took his performance up a notch at the Spanish Grand Prix as he finally defeated his teammate’s pole position scoring streak but in the end, finished in 4th place while Vettel scored the win easily once again after starting from 2nd
place on the grid.
The next three races were pretty much the same for the team as the two Red Bull Racing Team drivers finished in 1st and 3rd places with Vettel and Webber respectively at the European Grand Prix while at the Canadian Grand Prix, the
two finished in 2nd and 3rd places similar to the Chinese Grand Prix.
Let’s see if Vettel continues to dominate for Red Bull in the remainder of the 2011 Formula 1 season.
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