Red Bull struggles the surprise of 2012 says Brundle
2 April, 2012
Martin Brundle interviews Christian Horner on the Sepang grid
Apr.2 (GMM) Sky TV commentator and former F1 driver Martin Brundle has described Red Bull’s lack of pace as the biggest surprise of the 2012 season so far.
After consecutive world championships with Sebastian Vettel, the energy-drink maker’s team was universally tipped as the pre-season favourite for yet another F1 title.
But McLaren dominated in Australia before Ferrari and Sauber surprisingly set the pace recently in Malaysia.
Former F1 driver Brundle admitted the struggling RB8 was the surprise of the opening salvo in 2012, but he also acknowledged that the turnaround might have been predicted.
“When you look at how the regulations have changed, it’s almost like they were designed to slow the Red Bulls down,” Brundle said on the BBC’s Top Gear.
“Doubling the torsional stiffness of the front wings, the way Red Bull were ‘flying’ their car down the track with lots of rake, nose close to the ground, exhausts helping to sort the high rear ride height out, it’s all been taken away from them,” added Brundle.
An unnamed engineer at Red Bull has admitted the team was caught ‘on the hop’ in the winter pre-season, when it became clear McLaren was better prepared for the new rules.
“McLaren came with an [exhaust] system on the edge of legality,” the engineer told Germany’s Auto Bild, “and it was declared legal by the FIA.
“So (Adrian) Newey had to adapt,” he added, referring to Red Bull’s last-minute decision to change tack at the very end of the pre-season test period.
The message coming from the Milton Keynes based team, therefore, is that Red Bull is playing catch-up.
“We need to understand the car better,” admits team advisor Dr Helmut Marko, “which is why for the next race (in China) we will have hardly any new parts.”
So until he’s back at the front, F1′s formerly-dominant Vettel – who lashed out at backmarker Narain Karthikeyan recently in Malaysia – needs to adapt.
Asked if the German was justified in calling his Indian rival an “idiot”, Brundle insisted: “No.
“That’s just an angry man who hasn’t got a front-running car at the moment. He’s just frustrated.”
Subbed by AJN.
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It’s not really a surprise considering Silverstone 2011 is it? The blown diffuser gave Redbull the downforce in 2011. Rule changes are usually brought in to change the pecking order of teams, and also to help viewers from being bored. Look at Williams up until the major changes in 1998 which saw McLaren lap the entire field, the one set of tires per race that saw a Michelin-Renault help Alonso in 2005 at the expense of Bridgestone-Ferrari, and the radical car changes that saw Brawn surprisingly emerge so strong at the start of 2009.
Hawk, agree. Brundle is the frustrated one! He’s a doosh too
i think certain people always want to see their name in the papers.. is it true that Red Bull is struggling? the statistics are 55, 42, 35, …. not dominating does not mean that one is struggling! does it mean that McLaren struggled 2011?