Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel feels difference in grip – Formula 1 news
Sebastian Vettel, back to back world champion of Red Bull Racing, seemed quite confident about Red Bull’s RB8 after the first pre-season test at the Jerez Circuit in Spain but said that the cars have visible difference in grip levels.
Vettel said that his “gut feeling seems to signal green” for the upcoming 2012 Formula 1 season.
Red Bull’s 2011 car, which was built around the blown diffuser concept, dominated the grid last year and won 12 races out of 19. Vettel’s feeling can strongly be attributed to the new regulations of 2012 by Formula 1’s governing body, International Automobile
Federation (FIA) regarding the ban of using rear diffuser underneath the car in order to direct the exhaust gases, which used to give extra downforce through the creation of extra airflow beneath the car.
“It's clear that the cars have less grip than last year, but we try to come back from that slowly,” Vettel said. “It's difficult to judge where we are compared with the others right now. It's all based on feeling and the feeling I have inside the car at
the moment is fine. I think we had a good day today, with no trouble. We had a long lunch break when we made some changes, but not because anything broke down. All in all, it was a good day.”
Ian Morgan, Red Bull’s head of race engineering expressed that the process of tests calls for continuous development and learning from each test has an impact on the proceeding test.
Technical aspects of the Red Bull’s car especially the aerodynamics concerning the rear diffuser beneath the car gave it a lot of downforce during speedy turns, hence making it the fastest car on track during the last two seasons and played a great role
in Vettel’s end-to-end victories in the last two championships.
However, with the new regulations of Formula 1 which has put a question mark on the competitive edge of Red Bull, the upcoming season seems to be a much interesting watch than the last couple of years.
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