Minardi: “I suspect the traction control noise from Vettel's Red Bull”

The great supremacy shown by Red Bull with Sebastian Vettel in Singapore raised some doubts about the legality of the Milton Keynes team in Giancarlo Minardi, founder of the Faenza team.

“Waiting to experience the Korean Grand Prix, the fourteenth stage of the Formula 1 World Championship, I want to return with my mind and memories to the wonderful experience I had at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, making some considerations and reasoning "out loud", so that I can share them with you and try to find some answers" commented Minardi.

“Given that I was fascinated by the “Singapore” context, being a completely new and different experience from what I was used to (you only arrive on the circuit in the afternoon and leave late at night), I was lucky enough to observe and study the exploits of the drivers in action from a suite located at the end of the pit straight (which leads onto the first chicane), also supported by a monitor with all the times. Ever since I said goodbye to Singapore, the memory of the 2 seconds that Vettel gave in the race to the rest of the group, including Webber, continues to run in my head.

PREMISE: With this "out loud" reasoning I don't want to take anything away from Sebastian Vettel who interprets his Red Bull at his best and I don't want to point the finger at anyone, but I have the pleasure of telling you what I saw and heard during the three days . In my experience, 2.5 seconds per lap is enormous. In terms of chassis and engine, they represent a development of almost three generations. Furthermore, the gap between Vettel and Grosjean (in FP3) and Rosberg (in Qualifying) was only a few tenths. On Saturday the German may have played "cat and mouse" but something still doesn't add up. DOUBT 1: from my suite, to observe and compare the driving style between the various drivers, I had taken fixed reference points of the track such as the "panettone" placed inside the curve that leads onto Republic Boulevard so as not to cut the curb. At that point I was struck by Vettel's very clean driving. He was able to cover that entire stretch of track without making any corrections, unlike all his opponents (including his teammate). Times in hand also made a big difference in T3, the most driven sector –

DOUBT 2: always on the same stretch of track, Sebastian was able to open the throttle 50 meters before everyone else, including Webber. While all the drivers accelerated at the same point, Vettel managed to lead them by several metres. However, the aspect that struck me most was the "noise" of the engine emitted by the outgoing RB1. In addition to accelerating 50 meters earlier, the German's Renault "scratched" in a completely different way from all the other French engines, including Mark's. It was very reminiscent of the noise emitted when the Traction Control came into action (when accelerating) in past seasons. In addition, this "noise" was only perceived when Vettel put in his amazing laps. For example, after the return of the SC he made a great restart and then put together some impressive laps until he brought his lead to 32" over Alonso and then stabilized, thus protecting himself from a possible additional pit stop. In those moments the Renault "cut" the power in an anomalous way compared to his teammate and all the other drivers (Renault and otherwise). Mainly these aspects (1- Vettel's highly clean driving; 2- opening the throttle 50 meters earlier of all the others; 3- the anomalous Renault "noise" of the RB1; 4- the over 2" given to all the opponents in the race) make me think and I would like to have some answers. Suspicions that become more important considering that Webber was not capable of doing all this, being among the ordinary Earthlings... I don't want to accuse anyone, but I would like to delve deeper into these aspects."