RB9 reliability pleases Vettel

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In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel says the RB9 is more reliable than its predecessor was at this stage.

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Vettel hails RB9 reliability (Sky)

“A little bit better [than last year] because last year we had some issues with reliability. It seems that we have done our homework well and now we move onto Barcelona for another four days in a row to test the car and see if we find any leakage and if so then we try to fix it.”

Q&A with Red Bull’s Christian Horner (F1)

“Q: What about the 2014 car? Are you running two design units?
CH: No, we don’t have that big amount of resource. It is a matter of balancing your resource between 2013 and the challenge of 2014 – which is a significantly different car with a big regulation change. That is one of the major challenges of this season – to juggle both developments.”

Bianchi hopeful over Force India drive (Autosport)

“I’ve had quite a bit of mileage in Formula 1 now and I feel ready to drive in a race. So even if the plan was to stay a third driver for two years, now the plan has changed and I’m ready.”

Narain to join Force India? (The Deccan Chronicle)

“Sources say that Narain [Karthikeyan], who has managed to get more financial backing than last year, has already been offered a reserve driver role at Force India, but the 36-year-old is keen on landing a proper race drive.”

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Comment of the day

@Andae23 on Ferrari’s simulator:

Funny how quickly De La Rosa starts quoting Di Montezemolo.

On a more serious note, this must be the reason Ferrari hired De La Rosa: to explain to them exactly how that simulator works. I still think that putting him behind the wheel of the actual F138 was a good idea: if you want to develop the simulator, the men who work on that must know exactly what ‘feeling’ they are looking for.

Apart from putting pressure on the FIA (in true Ferrari tradition), I have no idea why he says the lack of testing is a disadvantage for teams with a less sophisticated simulator. Sure, the only way teams can investigate whether new parts work (apart from Friday testing) is the simulator, but that’s the same for every team. McLaren at one point have decided to invest in their simulator and now that hard work pays off.

Ferrari decided not to invest in a simulator (or a wind tunnel for that matter), and the problems they have experienced in the past years are just a consequence of this. It’s a nuisance for them, yes, but don’t blame others for it.
@Andae23

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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63 comments on “RB9 reliability pleases Vettel”

  1. Q: What about the 2014 car? Are you running two design units?
    CH: No, we don’t have that big amount of resource

    I didn’t know how much of a comedian Christian Horner was

    1. @tifosso1989 Clearly the greatest F1 has to offer. Whitmarsh and Mclaren probably have two teams as well so…

      Or Horner isn’t lying and he is thinking “Newey is God he built both cars in one year alone we don’t need two teams.”

    2. when he says resource I think he means Newey, not financial resources!

    3. Money doesn’t necessarily equal resource. They may not have the technical team to be able to manage two full-scale projects simultaneously so perhaps we will see Red Bull re-directing their attention earlier in the season than usual to get some real development work done on the RB10, which of course will be an entirely new car (unlike the RB6/7/8/9).

  2. “Sources say that Narain [Karthikeyan], who has managed to get more financial backing than last year, has already been offered a reserve driver role at Force India, but the 36-year-old is keen on landing a proper race drive.”

    Please no… please.

      1. @electrolite
        hahahahaha…….. very good!
        Exactly what i thought when i read that….
        Short and meaningful!
        I wonder how such a BAD driver have managed to stay so long in F1 when other much more talented drivers could’t even complete a season…
        ( a know the answer , its rhetorical..) .
        If force india wants an indian driver , why they don’t hire Karun ? He is uncomparably better than narain.

    1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
      9th February 2013, 0:54

      I’d love to see narain back. He could be a dangerous team m8 to have he was getting closer to pedro at the end of last year and whilst pedro isn’t lewis hamilton i rate him. Pedro’s as good as any of the midfield bunch (except maybe lewis and nico this year) if di resta doesn’t categoricaly whop narain it would be the end of the line.

      Also he doesn’t have a GBH/ABH conviction and this is suposed to be a world championship, we already have a french man and a few germans so the more the merrier i say.

      1. Also he doesn’t have a GBH/ABH conviction and this is suposed to be a world championship, we already have a french man and a few germans so the more the merrier i say.

        Jules Bianchi doesn’t have one.

        1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
          9th February 2013, 1:09

          adrian sutil does?

          1. Yes, he does, but the point I’m trying to make is that even if Force India decide not to re-take Sutil because of his conviction, they would take Jules Bianchi, who does not have a conviction and has far more potential than Karthikeyan.

            Furthermore, despite Sutil’s conviction, there are only a handful of countries that he might be denied entry into – Australia, Canada, China and America are the main ones, I think – but even then, it’s at the discretion of the authorities. Since it was a first offence and he was given a suspended sentence, it is unlikely that any country would deny him an entry visa on the basis of his conviction.

          2. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            9th February 2013, 1:35

            Well the point i’m trying to make is that i wouldn’t mind seeing narain back. I’m not talking about what the team should do that’s pretty obvious, hire kobayashi, which would also be great but even more unlikely.

            The only interesting thing sutil ever did was get hit by jarno and cut someones neck open, the later i feel being reason enough not to see him back in f1. Jules is an unknown so even if he beats di resta it wont be so exciting. Narain on the other hand might annoye other drivers, fail spectacularly or surprise even more spectacularly. Last but not least if he can get a seat with his history at 36 there’s hope for us all… we just have to save up.

          3. I think you might just be the only person in the world who wants to see Karthikeyan back, much less back in a (reasonably) competitive car …

          4. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            9th February 2013, 20:13

            Minoritys have more fun and what a minority this is.

      2. I’d love to see narain back. He could be a dangerous team m8

        Dangerous how? does he run with scissors? if not, then he’s as dangerous as a ball of fur.

        1. I dunno, That’s how I described a cat just before it put scratches up my arm.

          There we go, Narian is dangerous, he might scratch someones arm. Kinda like Sutil then O.o

      3. Karthikeyan is already dangerous to the other cars when he is on track.

        1. Yes but if he randomly zigs when he should have zagged it might mix the results up and make the season more exciting. Bernie might even pay him for taking out the points leader whenever the lead exceeds 10 points.

      4. He could be a dangerous team m8 to have he was getting closer to pedro at the end of last year

        Now I’ve heard it all

        1. My point is Keeping Narain as a reserve will boost Force India’s backing in India.Already there is a lot of buzz why FI is not havng an Indian driver.It’s also essential in terms of getting more sponsers.

      5. Pedro’s as good as any of the midfield bunch (except maybe lewis and nico this year)

        Hold on, what? De La Rosa wasn’t driving in a back-marker team for no reason: he’s a very solid driver and consistent but he’s consistently not blindingly fast – I can think of many drivers who are faster than him, who include every driver in the top 5 teams.

        As for Karthikeyan, I don’t want to see him back in F1, never mind a midfield team who have Jules Binachi in the running for the seat also. All he achieved in his career was crashing into Vettel.

        1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
          9th February 2013, 19:47

          “De La Rosa wasn’t driving in a back-marker team for no reason:”

          Ferrari havn’t hired him for no reason either. Frankly you wouldn’t get near him in 100 years of practice.

          “I can think of many drivers who are faster than him, who include every driver in the top 5 teams.”

          the top 5 teams are the er…top? it’s in the name. Whose in the midfield this year? a bunch of new drivers non of which are likely to be the next lewis or vettel in terms of speed or interest. + crashtor destructionado and nico hulkenburg both of whom probably are better than pedro.

          However considering his results compared to kamui his last good team m8 after about 8 years out of formula one racing. He did just as good a job as nick heidfeld did against kamui, i consider him a very relevant yard stick and so do f1 teams. That’s the entire reason he raced alongside kamui at sauber.

          “As for Karthikeyan, I don’t want to see him back in F1”

          You don’t but i do it’s that simple.

          1. Ferrari havn’t hired him for no reason either. Frankly you wouldn’t get near him in 100 years of practice.

            Both are very unvalid arguments. Firstly, he’s been a tester for more he’s been a racer. He knows his stuff as a tester and he’s a handy pair of hands who was racing not long ago. Ferrari had Marc Gene and Fisichella as testers last year, none of them has raced for years now. They cannot correlate actual driving with simulator work.

            Besides, if Ferrari wants to improve the simulator, then De la Rosa is a veeery good guy for that, much better than both Gene and Fisichella. But for racing he might be consistent, but he’s no yardstick for anyone, really. Just look how bad it went for him at Sauber in 2010 compared to Kobayashi, who’s not crême de la crême either.

            So Karthikeyan is further back a proper midfield driver than we could imagine. FFS he sometimes was up to 1 second slower than De La Rosa. That’s lame…

            And we’re comparing performances at the top level. To say “you wouldn’t get near him in 100 years of practice” would just spoil every single discussion we have about driving and performances. If you need to be a talented racing driver to criticize someone, then this site would die in a minute as there would be no possible discussion…

            We’re just comparing facts. And the fact is that Karthikeyan was, is and will be a very weak F1 driver. He might catch De La Rosa up 3 times during a season, that’s far from meaning he’d be dangerous to any other midfield driver.

    2. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
      9th February 2013, 20:04

      You guys are true joke-smiths you know that? forgeing and folding everday words into a razor sharp wit, oh wait. *sarcasum* anyone can do a narain joke.

      Why did the cucumber cross the road? Because sebastian vettel drove into it in a redbull that was 8 seconds a lap faster.

      Arguing his merits as a driver now that takes skill.

      1. Don’t forget that Pedro was a long time test driver for mclaren.In those days his times on track was on par with the likes of Schumacher in a Ferrari.He is not someone who went to a small team because he couldn’t drive.

    3. Well, you might say its only natural for a driver to be interested in getting a full time race seat. Doesn’t say how likely it is that that will ever again happen for Narain though.

  3. I hope Force India have a surprise in store for everyone to make this wait for the driver announcement worth it. Unless Force India’s financial problems are worse than I thought, I can’t understand why it’s taking so long.

    1. @slr Mallya is having some trouble with his airlines but at the same time I don’t think the team is in big trouble.Off course the delay in driver announcements is puzzling but it seems may be he is looking for more sponsorship money anyway.May be it’s about who will get more sponsors before Barcelona.Who knows.

  4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    9th February 2013, 0:11

    Narain in Force India would be a waste of a F1 seat. Testing might be fine, but the car is so good to be driven by such a simple driver.

    1. turbotoaster (@)
      9th February 2013, 10:23

      I don’t know, Narain could end up beating di Resta this year, judging by di Resta’s record with his team-mates :P

      1. Oh that will be interesting to see… yes he could beat Di Resta, or he could take the “First lap nut case” title from Grosjean

  5. I’m not reading too much into the reports of Karthikeyan moving to Force India. They first popped up during the Indian Grand Prix, and appeared to be a case of the Indian newspapers telling the Indian people what they wanted to hear – that an Indian driver would race for an Indian team.

    1. On the other hand if there was a chance to get Tata on board to “rescue” the Indian team (and having Narain as a 3rd driver / test driver) that would actually be great news, as it means a chance for India to focus its F1 efforts somewhere.
      Mallya could live to be the one who brought this forward and the team would have a more solid long term partner. On the other hand, its not the first overly optimistic thing we hear from Indian papers, is it.

  6. I guess it depends how precarious Force India’s position is, but they would have to be pretty desperate to take on Karthikeyan. Yes, he’s well financed, but he was consistently well off De La Rosa, and he is hardly the fastest on the grid. I hope Bianchi gets the drive personally.

  7. “Q: What about the 2014 car? Are you running two design units?”

    A: “No, we don’t have that big amount of resource. It is a matter of balancing your resource between 2013 and the challenge of 2014 – which is a significantly different car with a big regulation change. That is one of the major challenges of this season – to juggle both developments.”

    Ferrari seem to be managing it just fine. and I understand that even Marussia already has plans for 2014.

    That said, I do recall Adrian Newey saying he suspended work on the RB9 in the middle fo the 2012 season to concentrate on the RB8. Consequently, they didn’t start work on the RB9 until much later than the other teams worked on their 2013 cars. Starting sooner allowed those teams to start allocating resources to their 2014 designs, whereas Red Bull are still in the middle of working on the RB9. It will be interesting to see how that works out in 2014.

    1. Ferrari seem to be managing it just fine. and I understand that even Marussia already has plans for 2014

      Having plans for 2014 is not the same thing as having two design teams. Ferrari have retained the services of Tombazis and Pat Fry, who are working on this years car, and have also got Rory Byrne “working full steam” on the 2014 car.

  8. @keithcollantine
    Keith, I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t include my comment along with @Andae23 for a more ballanced view on the matter. I’ve been hearing Andae’s side from the powers that be long enough already.

    1. @brace I’m disappointed my comment didn’t get used, actually.

      I don’t remember commenting on the article, but it goes without saying that my insight was easily the most comprehensive, original and insightful one available, even if I didn’t make it. I’m aware however that @Keithcollantine has a quota of non-hairs COTD’s to enforce, so that other posters aren’t overcome with ennui and disheartenment at the realisation that they haven’t a hope of matching my brilliance.

      1. @hairs – brilliant. I often think I’ve provided some interesting, thought-provoking discussion but actually it was suggestions for alternative test venues that has given me my most recent COTD – I was rather surprised (of course grateful though) at that!

      1. Oh I get it! The link has changed now. You were referring Ted’s Jerez Notebook – Day 4

    1. @victor I was told on Twitter I’d blundered into one of these!

    2. Good spot!

    3. @victor
      Which one is keith??? the guy passing Ted on his right???

  9. It would be utterly absurd for Force India to recruit Karthikeyan and will only affirm that F1 is no longer the pre-eminent single seater racing series. It is reprehensible that competent, conservant drivers like Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Kamui Kobayashi, Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna have been sidelined to accomodate repugnantly rich pay drivers with little skill. Valterri Bottas aside, do any of the 2013 novices have sufficient C.V.’s to vindicate a seat on merit? If they lacked money or sponsorship would F1 teams be tempted to hire them? I doubt it . My point is that the sports panjandrum, namely Bernie Ecclestone, should reappraise the exorbitant costs of F1 and significantly reduce them in order for F1 to remain the pinnacle of motorsport with drivers who warrant their seats rather than procuring them.

    1. do any of the 2013 novices have sufficient C.V.’s to vindicate a seat on merit?

      Yes.

      Esteban Gutiérrez is like Bottas an Ex-GP3 champion, Won several races in GP2 & finishes 3rd in last years standings.
      Giedo van der Garde is an Ex Renault world series champion who’s also won several GP2 races & placed 3rd in the GP2 standings in 2011.
      Luiz Razia also has a handful of GP2 wins & was runner up in last years GP2 championship having finished 3rd the year before.
      Max Chilton did show some good speed & consistency last year to win races in GP2.
      Jules Bianchi whos one of the force india contenders has won numerous races in lower formula, Has finished 2rd & 3rd in GP2 & Renault world series championships & is an Ex-EuroF3 champion.

      People whine about these drivers potentially paying for there F1 seat, However all of them have had success in the lower categories & all of them so far in testing have shown good speed.
      Unlike the perception none of them have brought there way into F1 despite having shown little skill in lower categories, They all have the speed to justify an F1 seat.

      Its also worth considering that people complain about Kobayashi losing his seat, However his pre-f1 resume wasn’t any better than any of the rookies coming into F1 in 2013 & that people complained about Kobayashi getting an F1 seat because of that back in 2009.

      1. people complained about Kobayashi getting an F1 seat because of that back in 2009.

        I don’t remember anyone complaining, people just didn’t expect anything from him. He didn’t get a seat because of the money he could bring to Toyota (which was nothing, Toyota were backing him), he got it because Toyota needed their reserve driver to fill in for Glock.

        I think one of the reasons many are pessimistic about this years’ rookie class is because the standard of drivers in GP2 last year was pretty much at its worst. We saw so many examples of incompetent driving last year, with some of it bordering on disgraceful. Also no one was that impressive, no one looked like they were 100% ready for Formula One for 2013. I personally didn’t think anyone from GP2 deserved a seat in F1 this year, yes some of them had a some eye-catching performances, but they were often few and far between.

    2. It would be utterly absurd for Force India to recruit Karthikeyan and will only affirm that F1 is no longer the pre-eminent single seater racing series…………………..

      This s what he has in lower formula league and couple of notable performances in other motor Sport series
      1994: British Formula Ford Winter Series, Champion
      1996: Formula Asia, Champion
      1998: British Formula 3, 12th (Carlin Motorsport)
      1999: British Formula 3, 6th (Carlin Motorsport)
      2000: British Formula 3, 4th (Stewart Racing)
      2003: Formula Nissan World Series (Superfund Word Series), 4th (Carlin Motorsport)
      2007: A1GP World Championship A1 Team India, Winner Chinese GP
      2009: A1GP World championship A1 Team India, 2nd place at British GP at Brands Hatch
      2010:Superleague Formula Won the Race for (PSV Eindhoven SF Racing Team)

  10. I think @Andae23 is oversimplifying it a bit. The entire reason Mclaren pushed so hard to do away with testing was because they wanted to turn their simulator into an advantage, knowing no one else had it. So to say they deserve the advantage is a bit daft, as the only reason they have it is because of the sports politics.

    In all, I think this is laughable “I have no idea why he says the lack of testing is a disadvantage for teams with a less sophisticated simulator”.
    Really? The answer is obvious. The simulator is a form of testing, so to have a worse Sim is in itself, having worse/less testing. Thats a disadvantage.

    1. McLaren didn’t push to reduce the amount of testing: the teams agreed on budget caps, with the reduction of testing possibilities being one of that points. Ferrari did oppose it and still opposes restricted testing, but let’s turn the situation around: Ferrari would get an enormous advantage over all the other teams when testing would be unlimited, as they have a circuit in their backyard. Is that fair?

      “I have no idea why he says the lack of testing is a disadvantage for teams with a less sophisticated simulator”

      I don’t understand what’s laughable about this statement. Testing is restricted so that each and every team has the same amount of track time available – this is fair in my opinion. The simulator is simply an extra tool to test certain set-ups on the car. It’s virtual testing, but it’s not testing. Now I would say that teams with a more sophisticated simulator have an advantage (obviously), but the disadvantage for other teams would not be erased if on-track testing would become unrestricted.

      Thanks for COTD Keith :)

      1. the disadvantage for other teams would not be erased if on-track testing would become unrestricted.

        Well maybe not completely erased, but if testing would’ve been unlimited the teams with less advanced simulators (and with the resourses to do so, i.e. mainly Ferrari) would’ve been able to do more real testing and and compensate that way. Ok so the teams with better sumulators (and enough resourses like McLaren and Red Bull) would’ve been able to do the same, but real testing is no doubt better than simulators so it would neutralise the advantage of having a more sophisticated simulator pretty much.

        1. real testing is no doubt better than simulators so it would neutralise the advantage of having a more sophisticated simulator pretty much.

          Not really, all it would mean is that everyone would have to spend money on both real testing and a sophisticated simulator, adding a further cost, and less chance for the underfunded teams to catch up.

          the disadvantage for other teams would not be erased if on-track testing would become unrestricted.

          This is very true!

          If anything the fact that Ferrari are using real testing time to work on their simulator proves it. Real testing is no replacement for a good simulator, real testing will not show you and your drivers how your car will handle at both monza and monaco today as a simulator can.

      2. Ferrari’s testing ground at Mugello is much further away from their development centre than Silverstone is from Force India’s HQ.

  11. It would be a travesty if Force India put Karthikeyan in the second seat and retain the much faster Bianchi (in fact, I would wager that Jules is faster than Di Resta, too) as a reserve driver.

    I think Narain actually put it a couple of decent showings in 2011, but to be so thoroughly trashed by his aging team mate last year was embarrassing (even if De la Rosa was getting preferential treatment, there wasn’t much in the way of new parts anyway). Narain to race for Force India would be the worst case of choosing money over talent in recent F1 history.

    Finally, the situation is different for Force India than it is for Marussia and Caterham. For a team fighting in the midfield, having a strong driver pairing is crucial to getting results, as illustrated at Force India itself last year: in the second half of the season, Di Resta was having some issues getting his act together, while his team mate was racking up the points and almost won a race. I don’t see Narain Karthikeyan fighting with the Ferraris and the McLarens for the lead of a grand prix.

    1. Narian is a good driver …….he didn’t get a Car or a good Midfield team ……….
      Jordan 2005 Backmarker team
      2006-2007 testing for williams and also raced for A1gp won the chinese gp
      2011-HRT Backmarker team
      2012-HRT Backmarker team

      This s what he has in lower formula league and couple of notable performances in other motor Sport series
      1994: British Formula Ford Winter Series, Champion
      1996: Formula Asia, Champion
      1998: British Formula 3, 12th (Carlin Motorsport)
      1999: British Formula 3, 6th (Carlin Motorsport)
      2000: British Formula 3, 4th (Stewart Racing)
      2003: Formula Nissan World Series (Superfund Word Series), 4th (Carlin Motorsport)
      2007: A1GP World Championship A1 Team India, Winner Chinese GP
      2009: A1GP World championship A1 Team India, 2nd place at British GP at Brands Hatch
      2010:Superleague Formula Won the Race for (PSV Eindhoven SF Racing Team)

  12. It’s a pity not to see Lotus PR’s Twitter meltdown at the BBC yesterday make the roundup. That was entertaining.

    1. @hairs – I missed that; what happened?

      1. have a look at JamesRobinsonf1’s tweets during the test.. Directing a stream of indignation at the bbc’s Andrew Benson because they thought Hamilton made a better headline than Grosjean.

        1. Completely missed that. He should know that’s not a great way to be sexy!

        2. @hairs

          Directing a stream of indignation at the bbc’s Andrew Benson because they thought Hamilton made a better headline than Grosjean

          That doesn’t actually surprise me all that much, actually. For a while now, I’ve suspected that Lotus have been “buying headlines”, though it’s mostly been limited to Autosport. Ever since they started sponsorsing the Autosport International Show, they’ve been getting a lot of coverage from the site. On more than one occasion, they’ve run something related to Lotus as their lead story, but Keith hasn’t even included it that day’s round-up.

          So I’m not really surprised that someone in the team made a bit of a fuss about something like this. It seems to be part of a plan to gather a following among fans.

    2. @hairs Hadn’t seen it – not that I necessarily would have included it – but it looks like he’s deleted some of it now.

      1. It was already deleted during the day. I saw a tweet from Benson towards Robinson saying that for them the UK focus (for the BBC) of Hamilton finally doing a ton of laps in the Mercedes (after their earlier setbacks) made for a better top headline.
        And he added something like paraphrasing “leave us alone, we know what we are doing” too :-)

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