Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel admits it will be a ‘tough season’
to defend his crown in F1 2011
Defending Formula one World Champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull is bracing himself for a testing Formula One, 2011 season. The German believes that it is going to be a tough and long season for all of the teams.
Even before the first race, Sebastian Vettel and his team Red Bull are being tipped as favourites to retain the Driver’s and Constructor’s title. The pre-season testing sessions saw Red Bull put up some impressive lap times, and the Austrian team was head
and shoulders above its competitors as far as the car reliability was concerned. It was only Ferrari which came close to them, with the Italian team showing some great speed and strength of the tracks.
Just as his title rival Fernando Alonso had said earlier, Vettel believes that one can only have an idea of favourites once the first race takes place.
Vettel, who won his maiden world championship in Abu Dhabi last year, said that once all teams are on the track and pitted against each other, everyone would be able to judge which team is better than the other.
"It's very difficult in the beginning to tell,"
"I don't have an advantage with having the number '1' on the car. Obviously it's a nice feeling, and it was a great success and a big relief for me last year.”
Vettel said that being the defending champion does make him feel better, but at the same time it puts enormous pressure on him and his team. He said that winning the title was in the past, and he has to start afresh and begin the season like any other driver
on the track.
The new season will see a number of modifications in conditions and rules for the teams. The moveable rear wing is being introduced for the very first time in the sport to encourage overtaking on the tracks. The rules states that the driver on back of a
car looking to overtake can activate the moveable wings at a certain distance. The wings will lift up and will give the car a thrust and will help it overtake the car in front. At the same time the car that is in front and trying to defend its position will
not be allowed to use it.
The other change this season is the reintroduction of the KERS, it is also known as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System. The KERS were introduced in 2009 season , but all teams did not adapt that well and after a consent it was discarded.
However, this season FIA has reintroduced it and said that with a few tweaks here and there it should work fine now. KERS allows cars to preserve kinetic energy in a highly state of the art container. The driver is indicated the amount of kinetic energy
he has stored, and when he is looking to overtake another car or extend his lead on a straight; one simple push of a button can give the car decent amount of thrust. If used wisely KERS can really become one the most useful tools for the drivers this season.
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