Sebastian Vettel claims tyre management was key to Red Bull’s success in Valencia – Formula 1 news
Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel claims that the main reason for their success at the European Grand Prix in Valencia was tyre management.
Pirelli reintroduced the medium compound tyres for the European Grand Prix and despite the unpredictable degradation rate of the tyres, Vettel was able to move away from both Fernando Alonso and his teammate Mark Webber throughout the race.
The reigning world champion as a result won the race quite comfortably around 10 seconds ahead of the Spaniard and it seemed that it was a bit too easy for the current championship leader to win the European Grand Prix.
“Maybe from the outside it looked like a boring race for me, but I enjoy it so much when it's between you and the car every single lap. Of course I had pressure from behind at various times because the strategy was a little bit different to Mark and Fernando
so they were pitting at different times - sometimes earlier, sometimes later,” said Vettel.
The team claimed before this weekend that the performance of each team will not be affected much after the ban on engine mapping which was enforced starting from the European Grand Prix.
“For some reason I enjoy this track. Last year I had a very smooth weekend and again this year from the beginning to the end - it was fantastic, the team has done a phenomenal job improving the car,” said the reigning world champion.
Other than that, most of the teams tried understanding the tyres even more which most of them have been struggling to do since the past couple of races.
The new Pirelli tyres have indeed affected the momentum and quality of the sport and as compared to 2010, racing has now become more interesting since the teams pit more than they did last year. This brings the race strategy into play as well, making the
races more unpredictable and exciting for the viewers.
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