Red Bull flaws revealed

Soccer legend Peter Schmeichel watched Sebastian Vettel win his 14th Grand Prix in Spain on Sunday. While victory underscored how resilient the reigning champion has become it also highlighted weaknesses with his Red Bull RB7. Vettel might have to follow Schmeichel's example of scoring goals from a defensive position.

The German has won four of the five Grands Prix so far this season and scored 94.4 percent of the points available to him. Vettel now leads this year's table by 41 points - with the next four (Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso) all covered by just 26.

Sunday was the first time this year Vettel did not start on pole position. After losing much of Saturday's morning practice session to a technical problem as Vettel's KERS electrical power boost system did not function during qualifying.

KERS provides about 80 horsepower for up to seven seconds each lap and - depending on the circuit configuration - can be worth about three tenths of a second per lap. The margin to Webber on pole position? Two-tenths.

Most locate their heavy KERS batteries beneath the fuel tank of the car. Apparently Red Bull positions its alongside the gearbox. Whilst this probably works quite well in terms of weight distribution, it exposes it to much more heat and vibration. It seems this is causing reliability problems.

At 440 meters the run into the first corner in Barcelona is the longest on the calendar. So it was fortunate Vettel's KERS worked at the start - especially since he had the added disadvantage of starting on the dirty side of the grid where, because it's off the commonly used line, there is less grip. Webber was in fact mugged at the first corner Vettel and Alonso - the Ferrari driver snatching the lead from fourth on the grid.

An aggressive pit stop strategy and uncompromising driving got Vettel into the lead on lap 24. But for much of the next 42 laps he had the (third-place starting) McLaren of Hamilton filling his mirrors. This continued the trend of the Red Bulls being much less dominant during the races than in qualifying. Indeed, Webber was beaten to the final podium position by McLaren's Button.

For some time exhaust gas has been blown over aerodynamic parts to generate downforce. Red Bull seems to be at the forefront of this technology which now includes programming the engine valves so fuel is burnt (and fast-moving gas produced) without the engine generating torque. Downforce can therefore be maintained even when the driver is slowing for a corner.

If F1's regulators now restrict this area, as it seems they will, Red Bull should suffer most and Vettel might have to start winning races from somewhere other than the front row of the grid.

(China Daily 05/26/2011 page23)