Frustrating day for Red Bull
A woman tried to hang herself from a rope. Apart from the rope, there is nothing else in the room except a small pool of water and a TV on the wall. When she was rescued she could not speak. Why did she try and how did she do it?*
David Coulthard (Finish Position DNF, Start Position: 21st) “We lost the right rear drive shaft and I had to stop. We were on an aggressive race strategy, which had been working well. Typically from the back you would go one stop and long but, as we saw in Malaysia, the one stop option didn’t provide a chance to overtake – so we went for the shorter strategy. The race car felt good, the strategy was good, and I think it would have paid off. We’re going through some growing pains at the moment, but we will get through it and we’ll be stronger on the other side, everyone’s working very hard back in the factory.”
Mark Webber (Finish Position DNF, Start Position: 8th) “The car had an open fuel flap in the second stint, which was the same problem we had in Australia. It’s bloody frustrating. After the pit stop, I got myself back in position again, but then something failed and I had to retire. The pace was good, but the result is the same even so.”
Christian Horner “Frustrating is the only way to describe today’s race. Driving an aggressive strategy, David was a candidate for driver of the day. He overtook more than ten cars and looked set for a strong points finish, only for a driveshaft related failure to force his retirement. Mark made a good start and pushed Fisichella very hard in the first stint. Unfortunately he lost time in the second stint due to a fuel flap failure and, ultimately, a gear box issue caused him to retire. We need to get on top of these reliability issues very quickly, as obviously they’re unacceptable. However, we can see that we’ve continued to make progress and should have had two cars in the points today.”
Fabrice Lom, Renault principal engineer “Although both cars retired today, I think it is still a positive day. We showed a very good level of performance and our engine worked once again well. Our pace today was very encouraging, David did an aggressive race, overtook several competitors. Of course we are disappointed not to finish but we should be satisfied by what has been achieved so far, especially after the tough winter we went through. We look forward the next race to confirm our competitiveness and will work hard before the Spanish Grand Prix.”
* Answer: She saw 4 Red Bull cars retire and stood on a block of ice.
