F1 News: Red Bull in a quandary at the end stages of the 2010 Formula One season
Red Bull find themselves in a position where their more likely title contender Mark Webber is losing form at the worst possible time, and Sebastian Vettel, who has been their unofficial number 2 in the last few races, has been
by far the quicker of the two in the final half of the season. However, neither of the two managed to finish the all important Korean Grand Prix. As a result, Fernando Alonso of Ferrari has taken a surprise lead at the top of the table and now leads Mark Webber
by 11 points.
It was almost a perfect race for Ferrari and Fernando Alonso in Korea, as Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Jenson Button, 3 of the 5 title challengers, failed to score any points. It was only Lewis Hamilton of McLaren that managed
to end 2nd behind Alonso, and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa got the final spot on the podium with a 3rd
place finish.
Even though Hamilton finished 2nd and is now 3rd in the points table, the general consensus is that McLaren simply do not have the cars to match the speed of Red Bull or Ferrari.
While focusing on Red Bull, it is widely clear that Sebastian Vettel has been the quicker of the two drivers in the 2nd half of the season. Vettel has been plagued by some horrendous errors of his own and at times luck
has not been on his side. In Germany, Vettel crashed into Jenson Button’s car and lost points. Later on in Hungary, it was his bad luck that he was too far behind in the queue when the safety cars came on; the infamous incident in Turkey that saw him crash
into his own teammate Mark Webber that saw his race end right there and most recently, his engine blow up in Korea. All of those incidents prove that had things gone slightly different for the German, he would have been a serious title contender and may have
been leading the table by some distance.
However, putting all of that aside, it would not be fair to say that Webber is ahead only due to the misfortunes of Vettel. The Aussie has been just a tenth of a second off pace in qualifying behind Vettel, and in Korea and Japan
it was even less than that. There were also times this season when Webber was even quicker then Vettel, so the two Red Bull drivers have really been fighting tooth and nail for the title and supremacy within the team.
Looking back at the races in Barcelona and Monaco, Mark Webber was clearly the faster of the two in the team. The Aussie notched up wins ahead of Vettel and was much quicker. However, Sebastian Vettel had said that his lack of
pace had to do with problems in his car chassis. And to some degree his reason was justified, as when his chassis was replaced, Vettel once again was much quicker than his Aussie teammate.
When the season started, Red Bull had taken everyone by storm with their raw pace. Rival teams like Ferrari and McLaren were forced to ponder on contingency plans and make sure that they were able to match the Austrian team in
out and out pace. However, reliability has been a major issue for the team. Sebastian Vettel, for instance, has finished 9 times this season in pole position from qualifying, but has won only 2 races following qualifying. The reliability of Red Bull has been
an issue, but still Christian Horner, the team principal at Red Bull, has the other issue of doing a balancing act between his two drivers.
Mark Webber is in 2nd place with 220 points, and Vettel back in 4th
with 206. Like McLaren, who are looking to favour Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull would have to make a call as it really is crunch time now with just two more races to go, the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.
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