Red Bull: like getting lost in a can of water

And the cans finally exploded.

However this World Championship ends, the Red Bull Team Management will have to face a tough examination of conscience. Because, in light of a clear supremacy in speed, it is increasingly incredible how this team is literally wasting the opportunity to win the two World Championships.

The Korean double zero is a boulder that has the flavor of a final KO, the kind from which you don't get up within 10 seconds.

Pilots, Strategy, Reliability. These are the points on which the Austrian team showed its flaws during the year. Let's analyze these three factors:

The Pilots

Vettel followed by Webber, shortly before the Australian's crash

Vettel and Webber. The first and last chance to become Champions. Two different personalities per generation, two boys who don't love each other and who were forced to share an environment in which the older one "ruined" the plans of Chris Horner's favorite.

Sebastian is stronger than Mark in terms of speed. He demonstrated it above all in qualifying, on the flying lap. But, to be so, everything has to go right. This year's serious mistakes are compensated by the fact that all the contenders for the title have not spared themselves from this point of view. However, the clash with Webber in Istanbul and the one with Button and Spa remain in the memory. Excesses of enthusiasm of which Sebastian is often the victim when he is forced to chase. It's ok to be an accountant, but you also need to know how to attack when needed. In any case (even through no fault of his own, we'll talk about it later), Seb ran below expectations. We will now see how he will face the last two races with a 25 point gap from the leader Alonso.

Mark, in Korea, aligned himself with the number of seasonal errors of his companions on their way to the title. After having knocked decisively on Hamilton's door in Melbourne, having tested the wings of Red Bull in Valencia on the head of Kovalainen and once again accompanying Hamilton to the retirement in Singapore, in Yeongam he stumbled upon the same type of mistake made by Alonso in Spa. wet curbs (and that damn synthetic grass) played their role as traps in full. Despite this, the Australian was the protagonist of an excellent season, well above expectations and with better results than his teammate. Not only him, but certainly even on the pit wall they would not have expected four victories in 2010. There is one thing to be said in favor of him. The preference for Vettel certainly didn't help him psychologically, yet up to now he has been leading the World Championship with a fair amount of regularity, even if he seems to have faded slightly in the last part of the season. He still has two races to redeem himself and win his first World Championship at 34 years old. He knows this could be his only chance. We'll see if he can do it.

Strategy

Among these three, one is infiltrated..

As mentioned, and as is well known, Vettel is the favorite of the Red Bull wall. This meant that, despite Webber's excellent performances, it was never decided to completely rely on and support the Australian for the title fight, in the name of sport and equal conditions between the two drivers. The impression (our provocation) is that in reality no order was given just because until now the pilot in the lead was essentially the wrong one. Even after Yeongam, with the real possibility of losing both titles, Red Bull does not want to give support to Mark, who is all in all just 11 points from the top, while Vettel is -25. Frankly, it seems like a risky decision for a team that is actually fighting for the World Championship for the first time and could only have this chance (like Brawn last year). If after Interlagos Seb were to overtake his teammate in the standings and still have a chance at the World Cup, we are curious to see how the Austrian wall will shape up. What is certain is that Chris Horner is taking on a great responsibility and is risking a lot with this tactic. All that remains is “wait and see”.

Reliability

We're sure Seb would have preferred to shake the Champagne..

Let's get to the painful and serious point. The great Enzo Ferrari said that the best car is the one that breaks immediately after the finish line. Well, this is not exactly the case with Red Bull. If the two World Championships have not yet been celebrated on some tropical island, the fault is also due to the too many technical problems encountered by yet another very fast, and at the same time very fragile, car designed by Adrian Newey.
Just ask Sebastian Vettel. In Bahrain, in the inaugural race, he had to leave victory and second place to the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa, and the bottom step to Lewis Hamilton. In Melbourne he was forced to retire due to a brake problem when he was comfortably leading. In Barcelona, ​​due to a temperature problem he had to leave second place to Alonso but he had also lost third to Hamilton before the latter crashed. In Yeongam, as we know, he had to give up another 25 points due to engine failure. If we do some quick calculations, we are at a whopping 66 points lost due to technical problems. Add them to the 206 he currently has..

Adrian Newey doesn't seem to remember the past. Already at Mclaren the single-seaters he designed suffered from serious reliability problems. The Mp4/18 comes to mind, a single-seater for the year 2003 which never took to the track due to the numerous problems encountered, and the Mp4/20 of 2005 which, in fact, made Kimi Raikkonen's season a continuous handicap towards Fernando Alonso, due to failures in the race (when he was leading) or those in qualifying which forced him to start ten positions back on Sunday. Nothing to say about the technical depth of the person, but in Formula 1 reliability is a very important aspect, and it is not enough to have the fastest single-seater of the lot available to win victories and World Championships. Even a tenth sacrificed in favor of safe points would have made this car almost unbeatable over the long distance.

Conclusion
The World Championship seems (note to the superstitious: it seems!) to have gone Maranello's way, especially because Red Bull are doing everything they can to lose it rather than win it with Mark. Because if it is true that, in any case, the can remains the best performing car in terms of speed, two victories may not be enough to change the balance. If then, with two races to go, they still wait for Seb at the wall, pretending that Webber is racing for another team...

They are happy.

Alessandro Secchi