Just two months ago, Red Bull seemed absolutely nowhere. They had done very little mileage and when they did any running the car looked as far off the pace as Caterham and Marussia were last season. Remarkably, there is now talk of Red Bull Racing spoiling Mercedes GP’s party at the front for race wins, and maybe even a Championship challenge.
The Circuit de Catalunya is, traditionally, Red Bull territory with two wins in 2010 and 2011 and two further podiums in 2009 and 2010. They also managed two pole positions here in the years they won. Strangely though, they struggled here in 2012, where McLaren, Ferrari and even Williams were quicker and in 2013, where Ferrari and Lotus appeared to have the upper hand.
Spanish GP Preview
However, I don’t think Red Bull will struggle like they did the past two years this time around. This is the second particularly high downforce circuit on the calendar after Albert Park, where Daniel Ricciardo finished 2nd on the road. China and Malaysia were medium to high downforce circuits, with Bahrain being a low to medium one. The only area where Red Bull has struggled so far has been in the engine department. Renault has, apparently, begun to get on top of the issues which is making the cars powered by them lack straight-line speed. Former driver Mark Webber said earlier in the season that Red Bull will be winning by Monaco. I don’t think he’s far from being wrong. It will be very tough, still, but Red Bull have a chassis as good as Mercedes and on circuits like this one and Monaco it will be very close.
No. 1 Sebastian Vettel (GER) – 5th
Form: 1/R/3/6/5 (includes races from 2013)
2013: Grid: P3, Race: P4
Vettel has a brand new ‘Susie’ this weekend (he names all of his cars after ladies). The new chassis has probably been delivered after the damage he got in Bahrain. Strangely, whenever Vettel gets a brand new chassis, his supposed poor form tends to turn around. This was the case in 2010 and in 2012 when Mark Webber was having the upper hand. This is a race that Vettel has won before, where he won brilliantly in 2011. If anybody is going to challenge Mercedes this weekend, you have to put your money on the German.
No. 3 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) – 6th
Form: 10/D/R/4/4 (includes races from 2013)
2013 (Driving for Toro Rosso): Grid: P11, Race: P10
Two fourth place finishes are all that the driver from Perth has to show for his fantastic efforts so far. It could quite easily have been three fourths and a second, which would put him comfortably in third in the Drivers’ Championship. He’s driven incredibly well so far, and has beaten his teammate on merit in the two races in which they have both finished. No driver has beaten Vettel here in the same car since 2010, could Ricciardo change that? Could he be the one and not Vettel who will challenge the Mercedes cars? Form says so, but I have a feeling that Seb could be just too strong here. If he can challenge Mercedes and the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen however, that would not be a complete disaster. He could well be on for his first podium this weekend (his one in Australia was taken away), which would be a fantastic result, even if he is beaten by his four-times World Champion teammate.
Should the opportunity arise, it will be interesting to see how Red Bull implements team orders. Sebastian Vettel was clearly unhappy when he was told to move over the last time, and perhaps he will be even more reluctant this time around. We are yet to see a situation where Ricciardo is ahead and Vettel is closing (or “Multi 13” as social media has dubbed it). We have already seen the opposite situation, or “Multi 31”, much to the dislike of Vettel.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @Craig_O_F1. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at sports injury alert.
Main Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images
