Sebastian Vettel says the Chinese Grand Prix result was not what the team wanted – Formula 1 news
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing has commented on his Chinese Grand Prix that it was not what team expected from him.
Talking about the first lap lead of McLaren’s duo and two pit-stop strategy of the Red Bull team, the German stated that now the race is over and P2 is a good finish under the circumstances in China.
Sebastian Vettel’s hat-trick of pole-to-win races at the start of 2011 season was jeopardised when McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton clinched the victory in the last few laps of the race.
Vettel seemed disappointed about his performance and said, “I am not disappointed at all, even though I admit it rankles me a bit because the car was fast enough today and the strategy probably not the perfect one.”
The German also added that had the McLaren duo, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, not overtaken him in the first corner of the first lap, the tyre strategy would have worked well.
Vettel was on two-stop strategy by his team which did not pay off. Vettel was the race leader for the later part of the race but was really struggling to keep his pace because the tyres were pretty much worn out.
The German also faced a technical issue with his radio system after which he was unable to communicate with his pit wall crew. Vettel’s crew kept on giving him info about the tyres but he was almost blinded from the precious information about other drivers
and their positions.
Talking about the incident, Vettel commented, “Actually after the first stint communication was restricted, so I had to make all the changes myself, which was a bit distracting.”
The German further commented that the Chinese Grand Prix was ‘teaching lesson’ for him.
The Chinese GP took an interesting position when Button dramatically stopped into the pit crew of Red Bull Racing team when Vettel was behind him. Button was let go by the jack man and Vettel got some advantage out of the scenario as he took the track position
from Button in the pits.
Joking about the incident Vettel added, “Had he [Button] really tried to get a new set of tyres from my guys, who knows if McLaren would have helped me out? At least I would have hoped so.”
Nevertheless, the race turned out successful for the Red Bull team because both of their drivers finished on podium securing 32 points in total for the team. Mark Webber finished third in China after starting the race in 18th place.
The next race will be in Istanbul and Red Bull team will have to solve their Kinetic Energy Recovery System issue which once again failed in Shanghai.
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