Red Bull ends test early again

2014 F1 season

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Red Bull have been forced to cancel their running for a second day at Jerez after further problems with their RB10.

Daniel Ricciardo stopped on his first lap out of the pits midway through the third day of testing. He managed just two further laps before the team abandoned their running.

The team confirmed it had suffered a repeat of yesterday’s technical problems.

“We worked hard yesterday to make the changes it was felt were necessary to overcome the problems we identified and we were hopeful of a more successful day today,” explained race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum.

“Unfortunately, the measures we took only partially solved the issue and, as with yesterday, it’s more sensible to stop and dig deeper into finding a solution.

“It’s obviously not where we want to be and naturally the whole team is frustrated by these issues. However, we’re pretty good at bouncing back from this type of thing. This is where the whole team pulls together and I’m sure we will get these problems fixed.”

Red Bull have completed 14 laps of testing in three days.

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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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93 comments on “Red Bull ends test early again”

  1. With all these issues surrounding the Renault power unit, getting more and more worried about the state of Lotus

    1. Maybe Lotus knew more than the other Renault teams that’s why they withdrew from the test

    2. @disjunto um, in hindsight, maybe they are better off missing this test…

    3. Maybe that’s why Boullier said that more teams won’t be attending the first tests.

  2. No one’s problems appear to be as bad as Red Bull’s. Might be down to their packaging being TOO tight and not just the Renault powerplant.

    1. Gotta agree with this.

    2. petebaldwin (@)
      30th January 2014, 16:24

      I think Red Bull have their own set of problems but the fact that Renault’s V6 doesn’t work is certainly another one!

    3. Pretty standard Adrian Newey problem. However, once the problem is tweaked and resolved…. look out everybody else.

  3. Hahaha I’m so happy. I know I’m a bad person…

    1. Don’t be. They’ll win again.

      1. @full-throttle-f1
        Why so confident? ;-)

        1. David not Coulthard (@)
          30th January 2014, 15:55

          @kingshark I think @full-throttle-f1 meant that if @nickf12013 were so happy about it then Karma would strike and (just like that) Red Bull would win.

          1. @kingshark

            Just speaking on experience :-). Never get your hopes up, thats what I did for the past 4 years, I have learned not to do that.

          2. @full-throttle-f1
            From twitter;

            When you say Red Bull RB10, it sounds like: “Red Bull are beaten”. Try it. ;-)

          3. Heard it. Laughed for a moment, then put serious face back on ;-)

          4. @kingshark LOL – Awesome comment, that!

    2. Honestly, I rather see Red Bull fix their issues and get a competitive car ready for the start of 2014. Dont want them to build a dominant car, but just one good enough to battle Mercedes, Ferrari and Mclaren on equal footing.

  4. Any news on what really is wrong with Red Bull? I’ve read that it’s something to do with packaging, and the positon of some things that Renault are not happy with…

    1. They certainly couldn’t be expecting anything different from Newey.

      1. Indeed, the Newey cars of 2010-2013 were suprisingly reliable given his reputation of building fast but unreliable cars.

        1. what do you mean, that is not his reputation, that is you inventing it, maybe after the 05 McLaren? mostly his cars have been fast and as reliable and others. and every car past 2010 has been reliable anyway because the formula was mostly the same.

          1. The Red Bull cars have been one of the most affected by KERS issues because of the unusual way in which the system was positioned in the car, because of Newey’s approach to it.

          2. I’ve heard Brundle say something along these lines too, so it’s not just Patrick thinking it or ‘inventing it’.

          3. The 2007 and 2008 Red Bulls were incredibly unreliable, if I remember well. And all the championship winning Red Bulls have had some gremlins. KERS, mainly. Gearbox issues too, remember last year.

  5. Here’s hoping they sort out the issues for Bahrain so they can really put in some laps and see just how good their car is.

    1. Technical analyst says if everything is sorted out, it could be a RBR 1-2 in Australia.

      So…

  6. Newey is already working on McLaren rear spoiler bottom. Maybe that’s way :D

    1. Rource ?.

      1. Source ?.

        1. That gave me a giggle, thanks!

          1. Roflmao

            Bhahahaaa

            Like wow scooby,

  7. I would remind you all of the case of the MP4-26, a car that in testing had an exhaust that only ever managed to do four laps in a row before it overheated, and yet, it was the same car that won the third race of the season. Red Bull are a powerhouse. At the moment they appear, like McLaren did in 2011, to have a fundamental issue with their car, which rumours say is the electrical installation of the car, but the second the problem is identified, steps can be made to rectify it, and I would imagine those steps are already being taken. Make no mistake, this is not necessarily heralding the end of an era for Red Bull, especially since we haven’t actually seen what the car is capable of yet. What bodes less favourably for Red Bull is the mileage Mercedes is racking up…

    p.s. It’s still William Brierty, I’ve just changed my avatar.

    1. Will, can you not also change your @name to something shorter like @wb, less typing and less chance of error for respondents.

      1. @hohum I’m not sure you can, otherwise I may have changed mine (although @vettel1 has a degree of infamy about it).

        1. @vettel1 does indeed come with plenty of infamy? What about @eyebrowman14 for my @name if I can change it?

      2. @hohum – I don’t see how I do that. And anyway, why can’t you just copy and paste the @name like I do?

        1. @william-brierty @hohum I wish the username would appear automatically when you hit reply and then you can delete it if you want to.

          Like on twitter.

        2. @william-brierty, good idea except I can’t make it work, maybe it’s Ubuntu but more likely just me.
          Surely if Max J can be @Vet..1 them Will B can be @anything you want.

    2. Terry Saunders
      30th January 2014, 15:10

      totally agree,

      They’ve got the resources and manpower to sort it out, but I’d guess with such a complicated rule change they won’t be quite up to speed by season start.

      but maybe halfway through the season they’ll be blitzing the competition and winning eight straight races again… maybe.

    3. Toto Wolfe was saying after Day 1 that while it’s good to be getting laps under their belt (don’t forget the shooting day at Silverstone Mercedes had), they still haven’t done testing around performance. And there’s no way yet to know how they will stack up against everyone else in that department.

      The one thing RBR has going for them over all the other top teams is that they have shown themselves to be masters of developing their car in season. They also have admitted they are further behind because they were focusing for so long on winning the championships last year.

      Let’s not forget last year that Mercedes had the fastest car at the start of the season, more specifically at the start of races, before their tires would go away and they’d tumble down the order. Remember China? Bahrain? Canada? At least the cars weren’t breaking down ;)

      What’s really fun to watch is not so much where they are today, but how the teams will develop the cars over testing and the season.

      1. @uan – 2012 indeed illustrated that they are the masters of in season development, and it was that, coupled with McLaren’s failure to make the best of the MP4-27 that won Vettel his third title. I disagree however, that Mercedes had the fastest car at the start of 2013. They often had the fastest car on a single lap, due to the ease with which the car generated tyre temperature, but I would still argue that the RB9 had greater peak grip and downforce.

    4. petebaldwin (@)
      30th January 2014, 16:31

      Honestly, I think a much larger problem for them is their engine. With 8 days of testing left to go after Jerez, they are fast running out of time. Each of their engines sounded very sick when they ran today!

    5. @william-brierty very good point on the comparison between the MP4-26 and the RB10, but one could flip that and suggest that since it is McLaren and Mercedes now racking up the miles that they will be the principle contenders and Red Bull will be constrained to the “close but not quite close enough” category…

      It’s still far too early to be drawing any conclusions though – reliability issues are to be expected with such a momentous change to the regulations and of course the RB10 hasn’t been driven in anger at all yet, so we have no basis on which it judge it’s performance credentials (as you stated yourself).

      However, I would not be surprised at all if a fundamentally changed car arrived in Bahrain.

      1. @vettel1 – I just don’t we can underestimate Red Bull. Yes, they are now three days behind in the installation process and have, to all intents and purposes, more of a sculpture than a racing car in that it seldom moves due to what we are now learning is a electronic installation issue, but such is the speed of development that that has shown in the past, particularly in 2012, that a solution is probably already being worked on and I expect a fundamentally different car to arrive in Bahrain. Also, so early are we in 2014 that the RB10 could very well be 0.5 a second down the road compared to the W05, F14 T or MP4-29, and then, once Red Bull have solved its issues they will be unbeatable once more.

        And yet, I say that assuming it is the same Red Bull team as it was last year. Will the defection of key personnel affect Red Bull’s ability to respond to this? And in 2014, will the value of that precious first mileage put Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari ahead? All I know is the W05, MP4-29 and F14 T all look fast and reliable…

  8. i hope vettel retires at every race. maybe ricciardo popping up with a few podiums here and there!

    1. Oh, wow… aren’t you a true Formula 1 fan.

    2. After reading your post, first thing came to my mind was Joker’s dialogue in TDK.”Madness is like gravity.All you need is a little push” Both Red Bull and Sebastian vettel have done more than a push indeed.:D

    3. I agree too! I hope Redbulll gets it this year. Many people will cheer if they are not on top. People not stop being such pussies. It is ok to have a team you don’t like & enjoy when they dont win.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        30th January 2014, 16:40

        It’s what is wrong with the modern F1 fan. I don’t think it is ok to hope someone retires. It’s like watching football and hoping someone gets injured.

        I hope the other teams can up their game and beat Red Bull this year but doing it by Red Bull retiring proves nothing.

        1. Agreed! Retirements will be plentiful I’m sure, but that is not something to hope for. Hope for intense racing and grand battles instead, where Vettel come out as the loser (Feel free to insert any driver name instead of Vettel ;))
          It will only be a satisfying win for both drivers and fans, if the victory is won, and not handed over by retirement – f1 is a sport after all.

  9. I hope they sort it out.

    Whenever somebody eventually beats RedBull over a season I want it to be a close fight with RedBull involved rather than a non-event with RedBull unable to compete in defending their title.

    1. Red Bull will never be beaten.

      1. @full-throttle-f1
        With the Red Bull RB10 they will be. Keep saying the name. ;-)

        1. I am not getting myself excited, then I’ll just be disappointed :-)

          1. @full-throttle-f1 – Same tactic here.

  10. It’s not good signs coming from Red Bull and it’s at quite a crucial time as there is limited opportunity for development due to the constrained testing schedule of recent years, so you want to maximise every opportunity you have for track running.

    That said, the ones I now truly fear for are Lotus: should they encounter similar problems to that which have befallen the attending Renault runners at Jerez then they will be in a perilous situation in terms of pre-season preparation.

    Not of course that they have (relatively speaking) lost much ground to their engine counterparts, but this may be a circumstance of postponement of issues. However, maybe they can simply avoid troubles altogether and let Red Bull take the brunt of the teething problems!

  11. When is the next test? How long have Red Bull got to work the problems out?

    1. Test 2: Feb 19-22
      Test 3: Feb 27-March 2
      RBR have 3 weeks to sort this problems out and as far as i know they haven’t had any shake down test which might be useful for them if they want to use it now

    2. Besides tomorrow obviously the first Bahrain test day is the 19th of February (so just under 3 weeks) @timothykatz.

      1. Thanks! @vettel1 and @harsha
        I expect them to do some straight line testing and a couple of ‘filming days’ between now and Feb 19.

  12. Sorry if this has been posted before.
    Read it aloud: RB10. “Red Bull Are Beaten”!

    1. @estesark
      I posted the exact same thing as you, but I got it from F1Fanatic’s twitter page instead!

    2. David not Coulthard (@)
      30th January 2014, 16:29

      Now that I’ve understood the joke……..let me save my face and say that ten can be pronounced 2 different ways that give each take of the pronounciation different meanings….:(

    3. RB are bitten? They’ll get a rabies vaccine and be fine. Hopefully Renault will get one, too.

  13. Rumour has it that Dietrich Mateschitz is already negotiating with Mercedes. Maybe for 2015 ?

    1. @vettel81

      With what role?

      1. No idea – he may impels Renault :) or just a naughty conspiracy theory.

    2. I see my wild speculation in the forum’s Silly Season thread is catching on..

  14. Gooooood ! I hope RBR won’t be a title contender this year. I had enough of RBR/Vettel !

  15. Hypothetically speaking, if the Renault powerplant did turn out to be very underpowered/unreliable compared to Mercedes and Ferrari, what would happen? Tough luck for Renault teams, or would they be allowed to change and update the engine?

    1. I asked the same question yesterday at F1F live chat and got a good answer for it. Yes teams can change their engines but wont it be too costly for a mid season change? Also they would have to make modifications in their chasis for the new engine. So I really doubt any team will be considering changing engine mid season.

    2. My understanding is that engine development is either not restricted this season, or has much fewer restrictions, with increasing restrictions after each season. I think after 5 years it will once again be frozen (and who knows, by that point another formula may be introduced). It’s much more in depth than that, but basically, they have about 5 years to further develop the engine, and there’s probably going to be restrictions on software/mapping, use of exotic materials, etc.

  16. If the RB10 is indeed not a good car, then lets see where vettel will be finishing races….as Alonso said one time, if his car is average and he is finishing 7th in the race race then his championships will be haunting him. people will then clearly see that his championships were purely a result of his superior car.

    1. people will then clearly see that his championships were purely a result of his superior car.

      I’m far from a Vettel fan, but even I wouldn’t go that far.

      1. Well may be not ‘purely’ but I am not afraid to say that I honestly think that the RebBull has been on a very superior run in both qualifying and races in the last couple of years. I am not a racing driver but i dont think there is anything specularly special about a driver winning races but has a car that consistently open up the gap to an incredible 2 seconds in the first lap. Why do u think Newey and Horner already appear very bitter in interviews….they clearly see that they have lost advantage. Yes, it may be too early to say but, let us see their true colors compared to how they treated Webber as if Vettel was the best thing next to fresh air.

        1. Sometimes I really wonder if Vettel-haters have an immense disrespect for Mark Webber as well. Or have I forgotten about all the wins Webber took in 2013?

        2. Well may be not ‘purely’ but I am not afraid to say that I honestly think that the RebBull has been on a very superior run in both qualifying and races in the last couple of years. I am not a racing driver but i dont think there is anything specularly special about a driver winning races but has a car that consistently open up the gap to an incredible 2 seconds in the first lap.

          2013’s record breaking run was the combination of car AND driver. Look at where guys like Massa and Webber were, in relation to guys like Alonso and Vettel.

    2. Alonso lives in his little Narcissist bubble…. that is fine. Don’t give too much weightage to that. Tomorrow if he starts winning in a fast car, he will start saying that it requires his “Samurai” talent to ensure people win in a good car. He might suggest “Look how other people screw up even when they have good car !!! ” He will say that he is still unique because he makes sure that he will not screw up in a good car.

      In Alonso’s short term memory he does not remember that Vettel won his first race in a Torro Rosso even before a Red Bull has won a race. It took another year and a Vettel for Red Bull to win their first race !!!

  17. The RB10 now reminds me of the Ferrari of 2005. It seems like Horner/Newey was given special instructions to develop this as a non starter to improve the show just like Double points, DRS et all !!!!

  18. In before Vettel smashes 2014 and make all other drivers like jokers.

  19. Redbull brought this upon themselves really. They spended way to much effort on the RB9 last year. At the last couple of races I was always wondering why Newey was there.. he should be long gone, being in MK working on the new car. The late design-start of their 2014 car has had obvious effects. They are nowhere near the level of Mclaren, Mercedes and Ferrari at the moment. Especially the Mclaren, you see immediately they have spend a great amount of effort into designing and building it. The RB10 simply is not ready for testing yet, but they’re forcing it.. This, and the fact that Renault screwed up as well, is giving the trouble they are in at the moment. Exactly how the Renault powertrain could be so bad is a mystery to me. You’d expect it to function pretty well by now, after all the dyno testing. But watching videos of the Torro Rosso go round, and it’s engine stuttering and blasting flames out of the exhaust, it’s obvious something is wrong. Redbull are a great team, but this time i think they’re screwed for the season.

    1. No chance. They’ll win.

      1. @Full-throttle-F1 – Please. Stop. This “I watched Red Bull win for four years, so now I think they will always win” attitude is getting really boring now. Yes, they’re a good team, but you don’t need to comment on every other person’s comment saying that they will win this year.

        1. @jamiefranklinf1

          I’m just saving you from the inevitable disappointment. You cant get anything from a Jerez test.

    2. I’m wishing that Red Bull and Renault get their act together by Melbourne and hoping that we could see a finale like 2010 where we have Vettel, Alonso, Kimi, Lewis, Rosberg fighting for WDC and on top of that the double point system for last race (although I’m against this double point system). Things will be entertaining.

    3. How do you even know that their car is in trouble despite all the technical issues?

      There was almost no lap times to compare.

  20. After reading most of the comments here you can tell most fans fear Vettel and not Redbull, majority of fans say mercedes is best placed to win the championships, but still hope Redbull don’t sort their problems.
    This leads to the conclusion that they feel the other drivers are not capable of winning as long as Vettel has a competitive car.

    1. No, I think that’s drawing a conclusion too far.
      ‘Fear’ is too strong a word; perhaps you could substitute the phrase ‘are totally turned off by’ instead. And if you read the stream at the top of this page started by Senna2, there is the assertion that Vettel’s abilities have been flattered by the Red Bull’s technical superiority. Reading that thread, you could assert that ‘most people who post comments’ feel that Vettel is only capable of winning if he has dominant car.
      Me, I think it’s midway between the two, and nothing like the cut and dried conclusion you come to.
      But tell me, is your first language German? I have noticed that several German business colleagues use the word ‘fear’ where the English word ‘worry’ would be better.

      1. @timothykatz

        Reading that thread, you could assert that ‘most people who post comments’ feel that Vettel is only capable of winning if he has dominant car.

        Despite probably being right about @rockie gong a bit far, four people commented there, @SennaPart2, @Kingshark, @tmax and myself. Only SennaPart2 felt that way.

      2. “‘Fear’ is too strong a word; perhaps you could substitute the phrase ‘are totally turned off by’ instead.”
        As a Vettel fan, I maintain its fear, since Vettel joined F1 full time no driver, driving either a TR or Redbull has beaten him.
        People claim he needs a dominant car to for argument sake I agree with you in a dominant car both Alonso and Hamilton have failed.
        In ’07 Alonso was the same age as Vettel last year can you honestly tell me you can compare Alonso to Vettel ?

  21. Fortunately, with double points at the last race, they can afford to skip the first one… [sarcasm]

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