Sebastian Vettel claims that two-stop strategy was wrong in the Chinese GP: Formula 1 News
Red Bull’s driver, Sebastian Vettel, has admitted that the decision of stopping twice in the Formula 1 2011 Chinese Grand Prix was not an ideal one. The tyres degraded a lot towards the end of the race, which cost the reigning champion to score a hat-trick
of winning races in the ongoing season.
The young German had won the opening two races of the 2011 season in Australia and Malaysia and was the winner in four consecutive races, dating back to 2010. However his winning streak came to an end at Shanghai today on Sunday 17 April, after McLaren’s
driver Lewis Hamilton won the race.
Vettel stated, “We probably tried too hard staying on two stops. The middle stint should have been longer, but then you find yourself on the hard tyre and I saw Lewis coming closer and closer. There was no point [fighting too hard], I tried to defend as
much as I could without losing too much time.”
He further added, “We made a couple of mistakes and we had some problems, but still we finished second so I am very happy for that. Congratulations to Lewis and McLaren - it shows that one race when you try something a bit different, you do mistakes.”
The reigning Formula 1 champion was unhappy with the start he got today, as he lost a couple of positions to McLarens' Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Apart from that, Vettel had also some technical issues with his car.
The German was unable to communicate with his team, as the radio had some problem. Vettel was able to hear his engineer, but his voice was not being communicated to the other end. Other than that, the Kinetic Energy recovery System (KERS) wasn’t functioning
properly on the car, which made things harder for the 23-year-old champion.
Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber also had some issues with his KERS during the qualifying session of the Chinese GP. This cost him a lot of time and he was unable to make it to the second leg of the session on Sunday 17 April.
However, the Australian did a terrific job today, finishing the race third at the end after starting from 18th on the grid.
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