Vettel unhappy with continued problems

2014 F1 season

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Sebastian Vettel admitted Red Bull are unhappy with their problematic start to the season which continued on the first day of the second test in Bahrain today.

The team covered less than 100km of running with its new RB10 in Jerez. Renault brought a raft of fixes to its engine for the second test in Bahrain but the world champion was only able to complete 14 laps today having missed most of the morning track time.

“Obviously we’re not happy with where we are now and we have a long way ahead of us,” said Vettel.

“The first gut feeling from the car is OK, but we need more running.

“It’s not easy to find a quick fix, but I think we understand the problems. We sorted out the issues from Jerez and we were able to do some laps today.

“However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That’s testing. We all knew this year was a massive challenge and we knew it would be difficult.

“We obviously didn’t want this, but it is what it is and we are working flat out to solve the problems.”

Race engineering co-ordinator Andy Damerum said the test had been more positive for the team than it looked.

“While it might not appear so on the surface there has been a big improvement since Jerez,” he said.

“For us this was very much like a first test, so we were sending the car out to do one lap, then two and trying to build from there.” He said the problems the team experienced were not related to the ones which struck in Spain.

Vettel is scheduled to drive again tomorrow.

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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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45 comments on “Vettel unhappy with continued problems”

  1. obviously he’s not happy. who would be

    1. Sums it up, really.

    2. who would be with just a Zillion Euros in the bank, and more coming..

      1. Money doesn’t make you happy, and anyway, I suspect he doesn’t race for the sole purpose of making money. I suspect he races for the sheer pleasure of racing. That’s probably one of the reasons he’s been so successful.

        1. @xjr15jaaag money is not the sole factor to make one happy, but sure it helps you on your pursuit happiness.

          Most humans get their satisfaction through getting access to things they like and in the world of today most things have been monetized. Therefore, more often than not you will find your satisfaction dependent on having or not having the funds to get access to it…

          It’s sad, but it’s reality. I too think Seb is not there only for the money, but his hefty pay makes our opinion on that matter look silly…

  2. You can tell how unhappy Vettel is from the unhappy face on the stock picture.

    On a serious note, it’ll be interesting to see how Red Bull come back from this, or even if they can. Newey’s aero is fine tuned to the max, there will be s lot of compromise to get these cooling issues sorted.

  3. Red Bull’s misfortune will be to the benefit of the sport. Guaranteed, viewership improves if they have a rotten season.

    1. How can you say that? Red Bull is the F1 top team in the last 4 years (in a row). They have professionals working everyday to make Red Bull and therefore F1 more and more competitive and fascinating. They did their job at excellent level. That we cannot say from the rest of the competition. And we all know, it’s a huge pack of changes, so it’s not easy. And all you can think of is:”hey, if they fail that is good!” Good for whom? For you? You deal badly with those who wins? For the sport? You sure? Because, as I see it, viewership improves with all the best teams at their best not at their worst. That’s what I want!

      1. Because viewership decreased because of the RBR domination.

        1. Don’t agree with you. I believe viewership decreased because the rest of teams couldn’t catch up with red bull. Reading what you said, it gives me the impression that winning and being excellent at F1 is boring and bad for business. Don’t see Fangio, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, and others believing that.

          1. Sure. However I normally host a bbq on race day and on average 10 guys show up for it. In the final few races I was lucky if 3 people showed. So sure, there’s more to it, but there’s definitely the secured championship that made things boring.

            Likewise the same thing would happen if any other driver dominated.

          2. I dont understand how so called F1Fanatics can find a race boring, solely because the championship has been decided. As a die hard, I wouldn’t dream of missing a race. Each race is exciting enough on its own. And to very occasional viewers, I know for a fact that some aren’t interested in the championship, they just want to see fast cars and some overtaking.

          3. @yes-master: Whether it was because RBR were miles ahead or everyone else was miles behind is nit-picking. When one team dominates viewing figures drop and Bernie starts making silly suggestions, some of which are inflicted on the sport.

        2. @joshua-mesh @yes-master That’s what Bernie would have you believe.

          The same claim (the “Sebastian Vettel Effect”) was made in FOG’s 2013 Global Media Report as the reason for the massive decline in viewing numbers. For people who dislike Vettel and/or Red Bull, it’s a pretty handy argument, however
          Autosport’s Deiter Rencken (subscription required to read his article) suggests an entirely different reason. He writes:
          The “drop of 50m viewers is almost totally accounted for in just two territories: France and China. The former lost a whopping 17m (63 per cent) due to a switch from free-to-air TF1 to pay channel Canal+, while in the latter country 30m (62 per cent of viewers) evaporated after a move away from CCTV to a host of regional broadcasters. This move was again driven by failure to reach a commercial agreement.”

          As FOG is effectively responsible for growing the number of TV viewers, you can put the blame at Bernie’s feet, not Vettel’s or Red Bull’s.

          1. @pault @joshua-mesh Now, I can agree with that, Paul. The same happened in Portugal. Sure we are a small country, but we really enjoy motorsports, and ofc F1. But since 2006 (I believe) the f1 championship viewing switch from RTP (estate tv) to a pay channel (sportv). And before that we had lost our GP of Estoril. So these measures, altogether, were a heavy punch in portuguese f1 fans community, which started to slowly fade away. So, yes Paul, I think Autosport’s perspective is quite accurate, and Bernie’s economic (lack of) vision of F1 circus should be put aside.

          2. @yes-master

            RTP has lost F1 in early 2000s, I’d say 2002 maybe. I’m sure it was way before 2006 but If the sport is good and the price is right, people will pay to watch. Free-to-air sports is a luxury these days, here in Angola we pay to watch pretty much for any interesting sport event, from European football leagues, World Cup, Olympics, NBA, Nascar, UFC, ATP tennis and ofc F1…

            F1 needs more compact racing from race 1 until the last race. Ferrari dominated for many years and fans didn’t like the show, and despite it being the profit from hard work, most fans want to see close racing.

    2. @aclasschris If that indeed is the case then I feel sorry for F1 in its current form. If a team has to have misfortunes for the sport to be interesting then it is high time time something is done about it.

      Misfortunes should not make the sport interesting, the teams should make the sport interesting. Otherwise it will become a trend and fans will watch the sport only if somebody is having a misfortune. It starts a dangerous trend here. The sport should become interesting when teams gets competitive enough among each other.

    3. I don’t think Red Bull should have a rotten season. It will be good for the sport the other the tams are fighting them. I feel they will be alright but maybe not the top team this season. Just want a great fight for the championships overall, who wins does not matter as we want racing at the frontline not runaways.

    4. Ah to live such a blissfully ignorant life!

  4. For the first ever time I have to say…
    +1 Seb!
    Despite really despising Seb and RBR (not including Ricciardo) I really have to agree with him for saying that.If I was a 4-time world champion I would be bitterly disappointed if my car wouldn’t work properly!

    However much I agree with him, I can’t help hoping that RBR will have a
    2013 Mclaren-style season.I believe that it would F1 some good to have someone different at the front.

    How many other people hope for RB to have a bad season?

    1. Yeah I guess everybody kinda does, although personally I don’t have a thing against them. Or everybody else upping their game, for me it’s the same who wins, as long as there are true title contenders.

    2. No real fan would hope for any team to have a bad season.
      Then again, no real fan would ‘really despise’ a team and driver, so, yeah…

      1. @mnmracer No “real fan” talks about “real fans” or even believes in the concept of “real fans”… Not all fans are nice, pr friendly, everyone is a winner type people. I for one consider myself a fan of various drivers, yet I too hope Red Bull have a bad season. The sport has been full of drivers and teams who truly hate eachother, who cheat to win, crash each other off to shield title hopes. I can acknowledge Vettel is one of if not the best drivers of this generation, and I can acknowledge Red Bull are the best team. But I still hate them and I don’t think that makes me less of a “real” fan.

        1. Thankyou @Nick
          You are the first person to actually agree with me.I can call you a “true fan

      2. I have to say it’s sad to read some posts. When someone says “I hate” some pilot or team, it’s very harsh. It shouldn’t be like that. I remember when I was very young watching my idol of the time, Senna, battling against Schumacher, and thinking how I hated that german pilot. No one could impose to Senna like that! No way! And after that, the same with Schumacher vs Damon and vs Villeneuve. We was always the bad one. Do you know why? Because he was excelent in what he did. But for me, was easier to think he was something to “destroy”. But that was very wrong to do. I realize that as I grow up. Because, F1 is a sport. A fantastic one. But it’s not our lives. We don’t pilot the cars. We don’t have a clue how it is to be there, to compete, to be mentally strong and able to defeat the best pilots. And therefore, that’s not an easy path. They know that. Vettel knows that. As schumacher did. So, please, let’s not “hate”.

        1. Agreed, ‘hate’ is not a good gesture at all. Fans should be more mindful then filled with hatred. Disappointment I feel is more appropriate.

    3. So I see that most people still want a change of Champion but have nothing against RB. To be honest, I have nothing against RB or Seb
      but I guess I was so bored of them winning I took it out on them.

      1. All I hope is there isnt a total domination, 2010s and 2012s are good, 2011s and 2013s are bad. I dont really care about Vettel, he’s a nice guy, it RBR that I dont like, it’s an energy drink company, they feel out of place. Honestly, most of the times I see Red Bull coming into contact with other sports, those things seem to be publicity stunts.

  5. Though I have not been warmed to Red Bull and Toro Rosso as F1 teams, I don’t think them losing steam is what I want to spruce up the competition. Whatever I might have disliked about the dominance of Vettel and Red Bull, I would rather take all the other teams catching up to Red Bull than them mired in such complications resulting in an even field. Hope they sort out all the issues before the Australian GP at least.

    1. Don’t worry, only takes a mid season rule change and they’ll be right back up there…

  6. Why So Serious Seb?

    Honestly, it must be veeeeeeeeeeery hard to swallow. I don’t want someone to beat them because they are no where in the game. I want someone else to beat Seb and Red Bull at their best… sadly, it’s all looking quite grey.. or maybe silver.

  7. Well it’s still possible they could get these problems fixed and suddenly have the fastest car, it does seem like the biggest issue is on the engine side though (even though Caterham have done laps, they’re miles off the pace).

    1. Apparently, today’s problem at the end of the session was overheated brakes, so it wasn’t Renault’s fault. At least not directly.

  8. I think Red Bull is dealing with serious problems. Adrian Newey stated, a few days ago, that since Jerez, significant improving was made to the car, so Reb Bull was able to catch up the competition at Bahrain. Well, the true is far from that statement. And honestly, I hope that these mechanic and designing problems don’t contaminate the pilot’s moral (Seb and Ricciardo). IMO, that would be bad for the new starting season.

  9. They shall now be known as Seb-Bull .
    Heres hoping they have to scratch and fight all year and then Seb (or Daniel) scores a huge win in Abu-Double taking the title.

  10. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    19th February 2014, 22:37

    I’m really interested to see how Sebastian is able to handle some real adversity if Red Bull’s reliability issues plague them for at least the first few races this season. I say “a few”, because they’ll almost inevitably work it out and get back to their winning ways sooner than later.

    His Red Bull tenure has been for the most part pretty much perfect, which has helped him with his dominance of the sport (full credit to him btw). You could argue that 2010 had quite a few reliability problems, but the car was still a great car (arguably the best Red Bull ever, according to Newey) and he was able to take the championship. And you could also say that the beginning of 2012 was a bit sloppy as the car wasn’t fully competitive, but it again, was still a great car, capable of taking the odd win, with the pace to be consistently on the podium.

    However, the problems they’re experiencing thus far are far more serious, and seem to be a combined problem of Renault engines, and Adrian Newey’s inherently tight packaging of car components in the pursuit of aerodynamic gain.

    If they get DNF after DNF to begin the season, then we’ll see some interesting things from Red Bull and Mr. Vettel I think.

    Gonna be a great season either way!

    1. I too am fascinated by how Vettel will handle it if things are not going well. It is something he has not really experienced before in F1 and I get the feeling that is part of the reason why some fans find him difficult to fully embrace.
      It sounds bad but I hope Red Bull does struggle during the first part of the season. I want to see a number of teams/drivers win.
      There is nothing like adversity to reveal true character.

  11. Interesting to consider that the only part of the RB team’s setup that hasn’t been lauded is its technical prowess – rather observers have been keen to point to Newey’s genius in regards to aero. I foresee multiple ERS/battery overheat failures this season, and not only for the Bulls. RB never completely nailed KERS technology, perhaps this is their Achilles heel? Perhaps Ferrari, with their seemingly solid pace in testing, low cooling requirements, the speculation that they’ll be above-average fuel efficient together with bullet-proof reliability will finally reclaim some lost glory?

  12. Seb? What about Ric? He must be stressed to the max right now! Seb, whether people like it or not, is a 4x consecutive WDC, that’s written in the history pages forever, Dan is still yet to make his mark. Whatever the history pages will read come Abu Dhabi It will be a test of Red Bull’s mettle if they can turn these set backs around.

    1. ..Mr Iceman probably laugh today.

  13. The only reason I don’t support Double Points is b/c from the way things are looking right now, we won’t require their awarding to see a driver other than Vettel win the WDC (“fingers-crossed!!”)…

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