Red Bull questions its poor performance

The Spanish Grand Prix had good and bad surprises in store, but the grimace soup was in order at Red Bull at the end of the race. Sebastian Vettel only managed to move up two places from eighth while Mark Webber was unable to improve on his 11th position on the grid. If the reigning double world champion suffered a drive-through, this does not explain the lack of performance of the RB8 on the Catalunya circuit, known to be a judge of the peace on the potential of single-seaters.

The two Red Bull drivers complain about having lost time by changing the nose of their car. “It was a difficult day and a difficult race”, recognizes Sebastian Vettel. “I could have finished in a better position because I was quick at the end. But it's hard to manage the race when you alternate between highs and lows. This cost me time but it was the right thing to do as the wing was damaged on the left front. »

Mark Webber indeed experienced the same problem as his teammate. But the Australian especially suffered from the traffic which forced him to hit his tires to try to gain the advantage on this track where overtaking is difficult. “An interesting race after a difficult first lap. I don't know how I damaged my front wing but I had to stop to change it. I lost a lot of time with that and it's hard to come back into the race after losing several positions. The tires go to shreds when we try to take the others back, it's a bit of a chicken and egg story. If you attack to overtake them, you have to stop earlier and plan an additional stop. The speed of the car was a mystery. I was stuck behind the Force Indias and the McLaren weren't really in on it. »

Discover the analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version and from Wednesday on newsstands.