Red Bull’s Anonymous Sunday Crowns a Complicated Weekend

The hero of Melbourne 2014 carried a struggling team. Starting 6th, his race was rather sluggish. Overtaken by Sainz and Nasr at the start, the Australian was never able to overtake the Brazilian. He described his RB11 today as unpredictable: « I encountered driving difficulties with my car today. We fought the whole race with Nasr’s Sauber, but I could never pass him, we simply didn’t have the pace for that. »

The local contender regrets the inconsistency in the behavior of his single-seater. « I had to fight every lap of the race to make the driving effective. Although we are aware of most of our difficulties, new problems appeared, and that is very surprising. »

More unpredictable than its predecessors, Adrian Newey’s new design is also slower. We encountered fewer problems this winter compared to last year, but in terms of pace, we are 2 to 2.5 seconds per lap below our benchmarks.

Even in difficulty, the Australian remains motivated. We are behind the competition, but we have to deal with it; we must now do our best. I am sure we will succeed, even if it might take a bit of time.

Daniil Kvyat added to the list of retirements of the day. His Red Bull encountered transmission issues during his installation lap. Unable to reset the car, the Russian had to throw in the towel: Despite our difficulties, we need to adopt a good attitude by staying positive. I have confidence in the team. We have another race in two weeks and we will work as hard as we can to improve.

Since 2011, Red Bull had the unique feature of always placing at least one of its drivers on the podium of the inaugural race. Served by a reluctant Renault engine, openly criticized by Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, the Milton Keynes team will need to quickly reinvent itself in order to regain its prestige.