Following a 4th place and a 5th place at last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the first four races have been far from a disaster for Infiniti Red Bull Racing, compared to where they were just two months ago compared to all of the Mercedes-powered cars and teams.
Okay, it is the first time since 2008 that the team have failed to net a win in the first four races of a season; however, the team now lie second in the constructor’s standings, ahead of Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes, Williams-Mercedes and Force India-Mercedes, all teams they expected to be behind at this stage of the season.
The team’s ‘spy’ said on their official website that Mercedes’ determination to get them banned shows that the Brackley-based squad have been rattled by the swift progress that Red Bull have made. Historically, Red Bull are a team that gets better as the season progresses as well, especially last year, when Sebastian Vettel took a staggering nine race wins in a row. With Red Bull having found a possible gem in the young Daniel Ricciardo as well, one could argue that Red Bull’s driver line-up is just as good as that of Ferrari, with three world championships split between Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, or Mercedes with 2008 champ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who on his day is better than the Brit.
China was a race which showed aspects of this stage last season, Mercedes showing epic qualifying pace, Ferrari being right up there too with Infiniti Red Bull not far behind. We had a similar story this year, but without the tyre woes for Mercedes. We also saw Red Bull struggling to decide on which strategy to use, and Vettel and Ricciardo meeting on track again for another “Multi 31”, where Vettel was asked again, like in Bahrain, to let the Australian through. Initially Vettel refused, but once he was [falsely] assured that Daniel was on an alternate strategy, he let him through.
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER)
Q: P3
R: P5
It’s incredibly uncommon for Sebastian Vettel to be outraced by a teammate two races on the trot. It hasn’t occurred since 2012, when Mark Webber had the upper hand on Vettel in the first half of the season. Vettel, much like his good friend Kimi Raikkonen, has been struggling massively to get to grips with these new Formula One cars and the new hybrid engines. Despite this, he is picking up very good points, he has scored in every race bar Australia where he retired through no fault of his own, and now lies fifth in the standings, behind the two Mercedes drivers, Fernando Alonso and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg. Vettel isn’t a four-times world champion for no reason, he is one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all-time. Just because he has had a poor start to the season, like he did in 2012, and to a degree in 2009 and 2010, I don’t think he or anybody should be too concerned about his form at the moment. Once the Red Bull is quicker, I can assure you that he will be right up there once again; from a purist point of view, however, not with the dominance that we saw in 2011 or in 2013.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
Q: P2
R: P4
After losing out on his Australian GP podium behind closed doors early last week, it didn’t seem to dampen Ricciardo’s spirits too much as he continues to have the upper hand on his teammate at this stage of the season. He could well have challenged Alonso for P3 in the race, but I think the Ferrari would have been able to just about shake him off. Vettel is ahead on points though, which is what counts at the end of the day. One reason as to why Ricciardo may have the upper hand on his teammate, as suggested by Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle, is that Ricciardo is more used to driving cars like this, as he had more power and less downforce in the Toro Rosso, which was powered by Ferrari as oppose to his teammate Vettel, who enjoyed far more downforce at the cost of top speed over the last five years.
This teammate battle is shaping up to be very interesting, perhaps more so than the highly-anticipated ones at Mercedes and at Ferrari. However, it is still early days, and as we have seen before, in 2010 and again in 2012, Vettel can somehow find incredible form when it matters most, towards the end of the season.
All of a sudden, Red Bull have thrown their hat into this championship fight.
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