Red Bull Assessment – The team missed an opportunity to shine

Great hopes were placed on Red Bull for this Chinese GP. To recall, Coulthard and Webber, the two drivers, were 5th and 7th on the starting grid, so the highest expectations were placed on them.

Unfortunately, the very changing conditions did not favor the team. In the end, Coulthard is only 8th but still scores 1 point, and Webber finishes 10th.

David Coulthard – 8th

“A frustrating race. Starting fifth and finishing eighth is quite disappointing, but at least we take a point in China and we are getting closer to Williams in the battle for fourth place in the constructors’ championship.”

“It was a bit of luck with the different tire options today. Unfortunately, when I changed the tires to dry ones, it started to rain lightly, costing me 30 seconds in two laps.”

Marc Webber – 10th

“It was a difficult race because of the conditions it presented. It was hard to know if wet or dry tires were the best. Once on dry tires, the rain started to fall and I saw a car off the track on the last corner and I really thought I was going to do the same thing myself.”

“Since the rain didn’t last long, I had to return to the pits for dry tires again. David’s point brings us somewhat closer to Williams, but let’s wait for Brazil to see the final result.”

Christian Horner – Director

“The changing conditions at the start of the race meant that the puzzle would be which kind of tires to use. David, starting in fifth position behind the top four at the beginning, stayed on wet tires until his first pit stop. It was then decided to switch to dry tires and refuel him for the rest of the race. But a second downpour hit the site, so he lost a lot of time.”

“For Marc, there were a few questions about the car, which had some small issues with wet conditions on its rain tires, so we switched to dry tires. It was the right decision. When the rain started again, he switched back to rain tires and was the fastest car on the circuit for a few laps until he eventually had to opt for dry tires again. Unfortunately, he finished out of the points.”

“It is frustrating because the cars were competitive and obviously disappointing to get only one more point. Congratulations to Toro Rosso who is fourth and sixth today.”