Infiniti Red Bull Racing 2013

[Juzh]

A really nice down-to-earth interview with Sebastian Vettel including lots of tense topics and trends:

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews ... 14833.html

Looks like alonso had already changed his mind on Vettel's RB9. Just weeks ago he was claiming he's leading WDC because he's doing the best job, now he saying it's all down to the car. Good to hear Vettel's not taking any of it.

[FoxHound]

I don't feel Alonso is being unreasonable in his assessment. The car which has the most podiums to it's name, the most wins, the most fastest laps and the second most poles to the one laps specialist Mercedes team, is Red Bull with the RB9.
Not to detract from Vettel and Webber, but they are in a better car I think we can safely say.

[Harsha]

I agree RB9 is a Better car but its not the out and out fastest car which is what Alonso mostly says. As Sebastian said "it takes lot of hard work. It wasn't just Fallen from Heaven".

[ringo]

I think it is the out and out fastest car, not because of what Vettel is doing with it, but because of what webber is doing.
I've never seen so many slip ups that can lead to such good recovery drives.
If you look at webber's finishing positions to how many times him or the team messes up you will realize that the car is a podium magnet.
It's those drives that convince me the car is the best, not necessarily Vettel's race pace up front. Vettel usually manages his pace and tries not to do anything stupid up front.
But when webber has to come through the field, you know he's not holding back and usually he is dangerously quick in the rb9 while still making errors. No other car has demonstrated that "podium magnet" ability.

With the new tyres, I expect to see the true colours of the RB9, 3/4 seconds a lap in the race on the nearest challenger.
The car was a sleeping giant all this time.

[Chuckjr]

100% agree. The car is a beast. Its astounding how the original base design was 4 years ago, and the car is still dominating - despite massive changes over the years (exhaust) it has remained fast.

Do you think he will stick with this glorified RB5 base for 2014, or go 100% new concept?

[FoxHound]

Agreed Ringo,

It is a clear cut above anything else, it's performance in the early season was masked by the degradation of the tyres and how the team choose to utilise them with the RB9 package.

@ChuckJr
There will be a need for change. Cooling and packaging requirements are vastly different in 2014, and the front wing will be 150mm narrower, making it less influential. From a visual point of view, these will be among the biggest changes.

[Chuckjr]

I pulled this off the lotus team thread on this website from an interview with Kimi. I don't want to misinterpret what he is implying here, but is he saying if he chose Red Bull, racing Vettel would be easy--implying easy to beat?

"Regarding the prospect of having Sebastian Vettel as a team mate, he said: “I have no problem to race with anybody. I’ve never been in a position to choose who I drive with, so it doesn’t change anything. If would happen obviously it would be more easy than some other years.”"

[Juzh]

I pulled this off the lotus team thread on this website from an interview with Kimi. I don't want to misinterpret what he is implying here, but is he saying if he chose Red Bull, racing Vettel would be easy--implying easy to beat?

"Regarding the prospect of having Sebastian Vettel as a team mate, he said: “I have no problem to race with anybody. I’ve never been in a position to choose who I drive with, so it doesn’t change anything. If would happen obviously it would be more easy than some other years.”"

Well if he's really thinking that, then I belive he's in for a bit of a supprise. What he actually means is probably their mutual respect and friendship.

[krisfx]

100% agree. The car is a beast. Its astounding how the original base design was 4 years ago, and the car is still dominating - despite massive changes over the years (exhaust) it has remained fast.

Do you think he will stick with this glorified RB5 base for 2014, or go 100% new concept?

Newey firmly believes in Evolution over Revolution. My guess is that it'll retain most characteristics of the RB9 but with tailored spec for the rules, as previously stated, they will need to really think through the cooling.

[WhiteBlue]

Newey firmly believes in Evolution over Revolution. My guess is that it'll retain most characteristics of the RB9 but with tailored spec for the rules, as previously stated, they will need to really think through the cooling.

I support that analysis. He put in a strong vote against an I4 because the change from V8 to V6 is much better for an evolutionary concept. An I4 would have created potential big advantages for an engine manufacturer with the better approach. With a V6 there would be less unknown issues.

[Richard]

It's that time of year when we need our traditional "Silly Season" thread to avoid multiple team threads talking about the same thing. We usually try to keep the team threads to discussion of this team, this season.

Silly season chat this way http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewto ... ead#unread

[Kiril Varbanov]

https://twitter.com/randysingh86/status ... 2606943232

[Kiril Varbanov]

How to make an F1 car - video part 1:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFJ3ta-0O5c[/youtube]

[turbof1]

So yeah, I found this picture on loosewheelnut.uk; pretty much sums up what Webber has been through until now this year



Kind of frightening isn't it?

[GitanesBlondes]

Mark Webber's season in terms of luck is what I would expect from Chris Amon were he driving that Red Bull.

"If he became an undertaker, people would stop dying." -Mario Andretti on Chris Amon