New Red Bull inside info emerges with Vettel at centre of huge F1 breakthrough
Sebastian Vettel celebrating Red Bull's first F1 win at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix
Former Red Bull strategist Neil Martin has lifted the lid on the key decisions behind the team’s first victory in F1 with Sebastian Vettel at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix.
Red Bull stands as one of the most successful manufacturers in F1 history, having collected six Constructors’ titles and eight Drivers’ championships, split evenly between Vettel and reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen.
Former Red Bull strategist relives key Sebastian Vettel victory
Verstappen’s victory at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix was Red Bull’s 125th F1 win, putting the team just five behind rivals Mercedes.
The Milton Keynes-based team has won 30.6 per cent of the races it has started since it arrived on the grid in 2005.
Vettel memorably secured Red Bull’s maiden F1 victory at the Chinese Grand Prix in just his third appearance for his team in April 2009.
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The German driver secured pole position for the race in Shanghai despite being limited to just a single flying lap across all three stages of qualifying as Red Bull nursed a driveshaft problem with his car.
Vettel and teammate Mark Webber, starting third, were fuelled light for the start of the rain-affected race, which saw the first eight laps ran behind the Safety Car.
Vettel took advantage of a lack of spray to establish a 13-second lead over Jenson Button, the Brawn GP driver who went on to secure the 2009 title, in just seven racing laps before pitting.
After rejoining third, Vettel regained the lead after Button and Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barrichello pitted following a Safety Car and survived a scare with Sebastien Buemi en route to the chequered flag.
Vettel eventually won by 10.970 seconds from Webber, with Button a massive 44.975 seconds back in third.
It marked Vettel’s second win having secured his own maiden F1 victory with Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) at the previous year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Speaking to Champions Speakers in association with PlanetF1.com, Martin has revealed that Red Bull estimated that Vettel and Webber would have lost 40 seconds in race time due to the effect of poor visibility had the cars pitted into traffic in Shanghai.
Asked to explain his thought process in terms of balancing risk against reward in China, he said: “Superficially, Red Bull had never won a race, so seeing the opportunity to take a different route and win was obviously very appealing and didn’t have much downside.
“That’s something called asymmetric risk – there’s a lot of upside but not much downside. We were expected to lose.
“However, what drove the decision to actually keep us out was that this was back in the days when refuelling was in the sport.
“You literally had to come into the pits to get more fuel, otherwise you would just stop on track.
“Now, that particular decision – we were behind the Safety Car at the beginning of the race and everyone was pitting to get more fuel on board to make sure that when the race did finally start, they’d have a full tank of fuel to go deep into the race.
“However, when I looked at it, I noticed that what those teams had missed was the effect due to spray and visibility.
“Being at the front you had no spray and the separation between the cars going full speed, our analysis showed, was about two seconds.
“So if you pitted and went to the back with 20 cars, you’d given away 40 seconds in race time.
“When we analysed it live during the race, we thought: actually, if we’re in the lead for four or five seconds, pulling away in clear air, not being in the spray plus the separations, we’re going to catapult ourselves up the order.
“That’s exactly what we did. I think we stayed out for something like 10 laps with both cars, and by then most of the race was done because everyone else was lost in the spray behind.”
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Vettel said at the time: “To get pole and take the first win for Red Bull, having done it for Toro Rosso at Monza last year, feels special!
“Pole position was really satisfying as we had some driveshaft problems and I only had one run in Q1 on the hard tyre, then one run at the end of Q2 on the soft and also only one run in Q3.
“We were very concerned about reliability, but when you only have one lap there’s no second chance, so it was really a bit unbelievable that we made pole.
“I think it was the right decision to start the race under the Safety Car.
“It was OK at some points, but at certain corners you were aquaplaning. It was very, very difficult throughout the whole race.
“Mark and I were both on the short strategy. so when the Safety Car went in we had to push to get away from the pack, but it was tricky.
“Sometimes you were only just catching the car and keeping it on the circuit.
“I had the best of the conditions as I had no cars running in front of me for almost the whole race, but still it was really difficult with the aquaplaning, especially in the last corner.
“It goes a bit uphill on the way in and the water goes down and so there are some places where you have no control, so you just try not to downshift of brake too much there.
“It was great that we were able to fix the reliability problems overnight. That speaks for the quality of the team.
“My worst moment was when Buemi hit me. I thought Rubens was in front of me, took care, moved to pass him and didn’t see that Buemi was coming.
“I didn’t want to run into the car in front of me. Obviously, it was impossible to see anything in the mirrors as there was so much spray, so I moved to the right, checked and then realised it was a Toyota ahead and not Rubens.
“By then, Buemi had hit me. It was a shame for his race and I was very lucky to finish mine!
“About 10 laps from the end, I tried to observe the gap to the car behind, Mark’s, and was trying to adapt to his pace, trying to have everything in control.
“I realised I mustn’t lose focus, so started to think corner by corner and not look too far ahead.
“I’m delighted for the whole team and hope we can continue working in this direction.”
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