Red Bull boss Christian Horner endorses two-pit strategy for Sebastian Vettel at Chinese GP 2011
Red Bull Racing Team boss Christian Horner has defended his team’s two-pit strategy for the reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel at the Chinese Grand Prix 2011.
Vettel took the pole position by a margin over the two McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton but McLaren proved themselves better than Red Bull at the race as both of their drivers were ahead of Vettel before heading into the first corner of the
first lap.
At first, it seemed that Vettel was on the same pit strategy as Button and Hamilton were as all three of them made their first stop within a lap or two of each other. Since then, Hamilton and Button were able to take the advantage over the reigning world
champion as they were on comparatively fresher tyres.
It was quite disappointing for Vettel as Hamilton passed him just 4 laps before the end of the race at turn 7 mainly because of the fact that the 2008 Formula 1 world champion was on a fresher pair of tyres.
However, Horner stated that the team does not have any regrets about its strategy as both of his drivers finished on the podium.
“Second and third is still a fantastic result. We made our commitment to go with two stops, we thought we could make it work and we just came up four laps shy on making it work. It was a fascinating race that so nearly paid off for Sebastian,” Horner told
the media.
He added that it was the best possible strategy available for Vettel after his disappointingly poor start.
“We made the decision based on him being P3 at the time behind the McLarens because we felt it was the best way to beat them today and we very nearly did it. It was still a great job by Seb,” said Horner.
The Red Bull boss believes that a three-stop strategy would not have helped him in any way as he would have finished behind both of the McLaren drivers.
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