Stefano Domenicali believes Red Bull Racing are still the strongest contender – Formula 1 news
Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali believes that Red Bull Racing are still the strongest contender in the 2013 Formula 1 Championship.
The Scarlet team struggled a lot with during the last year’s pre-season testing programme and failed to create thorough understanding about their car. In addition, their technical director, Pat Fry even ruled out the possibility of podium finish in the first
race of the previous year.
Nevertheless, Fernando Alonso and his teammate, Felipe Massa seemed really comfortable behind the wheel of their cars in this year’s pre-season tests. Furthermore, they performed amazingly well in the Australian Grand Prix after showing impressive pace in
the qualifying. However, Alonso failed to score any point in the second race as he was unfortunately retired.
Domenicali said that he cannot make any prediction regarding their position in this year’s championship. Nonetheless, he asserted that they will surely stand amongst the top contenders.
Besides, he said that Red Bull are still the most competitive team in this year as they are standing at the top in the constructors’ championship with 60 points after the first two rounds.
“I don't know exactly where, but for sure within leaders,” Domenicali said. “There are tracks where our car will perform better; there are certain tracks where some others will perform better than ours. For sure Red Bull in my view is still the strongest
at the moment, but we'll see.”
Moreover, he said that Mercedes and Lotus are also strong teams in this year’s title fight. He also said that the competition is going to be very tough in this season as compared to the preceding one.
“Mercedes has done a step, Lotus is very competitive. It will be an interesting and challenging season but we will be there no doubt,” he said.
Additionally, he said that all the teams are facing the tyre degradation issue which has made it very difficult to manage both the drivers well. But, he said that they are working at their best to overcome the problems.
“For sure it's not easy; you can see what is happening in other teams. It is something that from general point of view is part of competition,” he added.
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