Category: Red Bull Racing

Cast your mind back to the closing stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix, when Sebastian Vettel, in fourth place, and Narain Karthikeyan, running second last, made contact. In the incident Vettel’s left rear tyre was punctured. His immediate response in the car was one of frustration and TV replays clearly showed him giving the bird to Karthikeyan.

The resultant pit stop pushed Vettel out of the top 10; no points. The 24-year-old dual world champion was not happy and he didn’t care who knew.

After reviewing replays, race stewards gave Karthikeyan a 20-second penalty, enough to relegate him to last place. A little harsh, we thought at the time, but that was the decision made. And that’s when the war of words started.

“As in real life, there are a few cucumbers on the road,” has become the accepted translation of what Vettel told German TV immediately after the race.

Happy to ensure nothing was lost in translation Vettel made the following comment to the BBC: “Like on normal roads, you have some idiots driving around. It seems there is also one driving here.”

After the race Karthikeyan defended himself telling reporters, “With Vettel, I got on to the marbles and the car had a lot of wheelspin. I had to jink to get out of it and unfortunately he was there.

“What else I could I do?”

Following his fifth place in qualifying Mark Webber is hopeful it will bring him good luck. Today will be Webber’s 11th race start in the Australian Grand Prix and so far the best he has to show for it is a trio of fifth places (2002, 2005 and 2011).

Aside from his debut race here with Minardi back in 2002, where a fifth place was something of a minor miracle, his results since haven’t met his expectations, not to mention those of a demanding public.

Speaking after qualifying Mark didn’t exactly sound as though he was filled with confidence his luck is about to change.

“Fifth is my lucky number here, but we’re looking to go forward and it is a long year,” he said.

“I’m not happy where we are on the grid. I feel we will find out tomorrow how we are on Sunday afternoons. Saturday [qualifying] is not our strength right now.”

Although, it does appear that Webber has confidence in the RB8 even though he feels they need more time to develop its potential.

“We would have liked to have had a bit better track time and having a slightly better understanding of the car, but the base is absolutely there,” Webber explained.

“We need to leave here with some points in the bank and we need to massage more out of this car quite quickly.”

[Source: ABC | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Mark Webber says he will only continue his Formula One career next year if he has a competitive car. He will enter the 2012 F1 season as the only Red Bull-aligned driver without a contract for 2013. Sebastien Vettel, Jean-Eric Vergne and compatriot Daniel Ricciardo are as safe as a driver can be in the cut-throat world of F1.

Speaking about his future in an interview with AAP, Webber said, “I’d need something competitive. It’s pretty clear that I’ve earned my stripes on the way through so I won’t be doing that on the other side—going the other way.

“Being competitive, being at the front, is certainly a big, big factor of me staying very hungry and motivated.”

The accepted wisdom for the 2012 season says Toro Rosso drivers Vergne and Ricciardo are effectively in a season-long job interview for Webber’s coveted Red Bull Racing seat.

Of course, Mark could have a strong year in 2012 and that could pave the way for a simple contract extension with Red Bull. Although, Red Bull showed last year, when they cut both Sebastian Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari from Toro Rosso, that they can be brutal when it comes to their driver roster. A good run of results in 2012 may not be enough for Webber.

For his part Mark says his season-ending win in Brazil has renewed his confidence.

Sebastian Vettel found himself in a familiar position after he took his Red Bull RB8 to the top of the timesheets in F1 testing overnight. The teams have arrived at Barcelona for four days of testing and with the launch of the Mercedes AMG F1 W03 all the major teams are now running their 2012 cars.

Vettel was the fastest man in the morning session and was the only driver out of the top seven to improve his times in the warmer afternoon running. His morning time was on Pirelli’s medium tyres and he managed a small improvement later in the day on the hard compound.

The day was otherwise uneventful with Lotus ending the day disappointed following Romain Grosjean’s complaints that something wasn’t right in the E20-02 chassis. As a result of this setback Lotus has withdrawn from the next three days of testing as well. Lotus ran their E20-01 chassis in Jerez and can take some comfort that it performed quite well.

2012 F1 pre-season testing – Barcelona (Day 1)

1. Vettel, Red Bull – 1m23.265s (79 laps)
2. Hulkenberg, Force India – 1m23.440s +0.175 (97 laps)
3. Hamilton, McLaren – 1m23.590s +0.325 (114 laps)
4. Ricciardo, Toro Rosso – 1m23.618s +0.353 (76 laps)
5. Alonso, Ferrari – 1m24.100s +0.835 (75 laps)
6. Schumacher, Mercedes – 1m24.150s +0.885 (51 laps)
7. Perez, Sauber – 1m24.219s +0.954 (66 laps)
8. Senna, Williams – 1m25.711s +2.446 (97 laps)
9. Kovalainen, Caterham – 1m26.035s +2.770 (31 laps)
10. Grosjean, Lotus – 1m26.809s +3.544 (7 laps)
11. Pic, Marussia* – 1m28.026s +4.761 (121 laps)

All Timing Unofficial
*2011 car

[Source: Autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]