Red Bull laments Mercedes domination in Russian GP
Red Bull Racing had a fairly anonymous race at Sochi where Daniel Ricciardo finished 7th and Sebastian Vettel in 8th position. Team principal Christian Horner meanwhile indicates there was little more that could be done, given Mercedes power was dominant during the Russian GP weekend.
Daniel Ricciardo, 7th: “The first few laps were pretty hectic and we lost a few places at the start. We will have to have a look at that, it’s nearly the end of the season now, but we haven’t had many good starts so that’s a bit frustrating. Starting the race the tyre was already blistered, it had quite a bit from qualifying, so it wasn’t looking too healthy and the first stint made it worse; I could see it starting to come apart, so we had to pit quiet early. Then on the prime the tyre lasted well and we had good pace and could match Alonso, but couldn’t get past. Congrats to Mercedes – it’s been a dominant season by them, so hats off to them.”
Sebastian Vettel, 8th: “I had a good start and then a tough battle with Daniel, but from then onwards the speed was nothing special, we had the same issues as we had in qualifying. I was alone for a lot of the race, the beginning was entertaining, but after that it wasn’t that busy. Congratulations to Mercedes on the title, they deserve it.”
Christian Horner, Team Principal: “Firstly congratulations to Mercedes on an excellent campaign to win the Constructors’ Championship; they’ve done a stunning job this year and after four years in Milton Keynes that trophy will now move up the road to Brackley. It was a fairly uneventful race for us. Tyre degradation was not really a factor; we had a concern with the option tyre with Daniel, which is why we pitted so early, but that was pretty much it. Dan got pretty close to Alonso at the end who looked like he was in trouble on fuel, but we just didn’t have the pace on the straights to mount a serious challenge. So both cars home, a reliable race, but it’s been a Mercedes engine dominated event.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault: “Both cars had a trouble-free race on the Power Unit side. But extracting the maximum from the car is particularly challenging here, especially down the long straights. It’s also a difficult place to manage the fuel consumption. Daniel is still on target with his PU allowance, while Sebastian’s fifth PU ran without any problems. Seventh and eighth is not where the team wants to be so hopefully we can have a better run in Austin.
