Red Bull’s rivals will all be hoping they are closer to the pace in 2012, but speed isn’t the only area where they must make gains.
Everyone in the pit lane will have been breathing very heavily as they had their first glimpse of the RB8. There will be an even bigger intake of breath, when later in the tests Red Bull take some fuel out of the car, and do a qualifying simulation.
However there is much more to a successful championship campaign than having a car that has the pace to win races. It’s also a combination of; reliability, avoiding errors, good strategy and good pit stops amongst other things.
Not only have Red Bull been leading the way in speed, but they have also become the leaders in many of these other departments too. A quick car will be of no use to the likes of McLaren and Ferrari if they don’t make gains in these areas too.
If we look back at 2011 Red Bull only suffered two retirements all season, the least of any team on the grid. If it wasn’t for Vettel’s mysterious issue on the first lap in Abu Dhabi, the team wouldn’t have suffered a reliability related retirement all season.
McLaren on the other hand endured five retirements during the year. Three of those were technical issues (one of them occurred when a wheel nut wasn’t fitted to Button’s car at Silverstone during a pit stop), and the other two were due to driver error. In the list of the number of laps completed in 2011 McLaren were way down in ninth position with the only F1’s three newest teams behind them.
In a tight championship situation these extra retirements, where big points can be lost, can lose the championship for a team.
Although Red Bull did have other technical issues such as Vettel’s gearbox problem in Brazil, and trouble with KERs, Red Bull were able to manage those situations and still get strong results.
To have any chance of beating Red Bull their rivals simply have to be bullet proof in 2012. Ferrari’s dominant era of the early to mid 2000s was built on the foundations of bullet proof reliability, which demonstrates how decisive it can prove.
Resultant damage to Webber’s RB7 (© Getty Images & Red Bull).
Something else that stands out from last season are that Red Bull’s drivers didn’t receive any penalties of any kind in 2011. They also didn’t make any big errors that led to a huge loss of points. There was only Webber’s tangle with Massa in Italy that led to a retirement.
Hamilton and Jenson Button received seven penalties between them, and Ferrari’s drivers received two. Mistake wise Hamilton got himself involved in far too many silly little incidents.
Alonso was forced into a retirement when he tangled with Button in Canada, whilst Massa hitting a kerb hard at India led to a technical retirement.
The Milton Keynes squad were also extremely strong in the pit stop stakes too. Excluding the last two races of 2011, stats provided by Mercedes showed that Red Bull were joint leaders with them in the pit stop league table.
On average McLaren’s pit crew were three tenths slower, and Ferrari half a second slower. In a tight race these mere tenths can make the difference between losing a position or gaining a position.
When you look back at times where Red Bull came into the pits at the same time as one of their rivals they often won the battle. Think back to when Vettel came into the pits behind Massa at the Nurburgring, or when he came in behind Button in China. There were also very few botched stops by the team over the course of the season.
Tactically Red Bull has been immense. There have very rarely been any wrong calls on the pit wall recently.
Throughout the season the team had a knack of making sure Vettel was always the last man to start his final qualifying lap in Q3, when the circuit was in its ultimate condition.
A number of bold calls were made which resulted in a race victory. A great example is when Vettel opted to stay out, and not pit a second time whilst leading the race in Monaco.
In Monza, Sebastian’s side of the garage opted for a short gear ratio and a focus on downforce rather than straight line. The plan worked a treat with the young German obliterating the opposition in qualifying, and then winning the race.
In Spain the team did a very aggressive undercut to try and leapfrog Alonso’s Ferrari, even though it put Sebastian in heavy traffic. They still managed to make that work.
In many of the races last year Red Bull didn’t have as big a speed advantage as it may have appeared. The combination of brilliant strategy, quick pit stops and no mistakes allowed Red Bull to completely dominate the season.
They won the races they should have won, and some races they shouldn’t have.
If it wasn’t for these factors there were races that the Milton Keynes squad could have lost. Think back to 2010 when Red Bull made hard work of the title, despite having by far the quickest car on the grid. Races like Monaco, Belgium and Spain this year are the sort of races they would have lost last year.
The biggest improvement from Red Bull in 2011 wasn’t the pace of the RB7. It was all these other ingredients that are vital, when it comes to winning races, which allowed Red Bull to make that big leap forward result wise.
Red Bull team celebrate title win. (© Getty Images & Red Bull).
Speaking to ESPN in October Vettel said: “We had a very, very good car, no doubt, but we had an even stronger team, and as I said, a couple of times already, I think the car this year was less dominant than the car last year.”
He added: “Last year (2010) we had so many races where sometimes you may say we were unlucky but we made stupid mistakes as well. We did things which cost us a lot of time and cost us a lot of points in the end. A championship is not one race, it’s a lot of races pulled together and I think that’s where the difference came from this year.”
History shows that in tight championships it’s these other factors that can decide the outcome. In 2005, in the battle between McLaren and Renault, it was the Woking squad’s inferior reliability that allowed Renault to clinch the championship. Reliability and making less mistakes also helped them across the line against Ferrari the following year.
Think back to 2010 and it was ultimately strategy that cost Ferrari the driver’s title.
Looking back at many championships, it’s all these little things that have swung the title one way or another.
In 2012 it’s very likely that Red Bull’s main rivals could be right on their tails, for the reasons explored in the F1 Times pre-season magazine.
However if Red Bull can maintain their superior reliability and pit wall efficiency, they will still have a great chance of retaining their title, even if it’s closer at the front.
McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have to improve in all areas, not just speed, if they are to topple Red Bull this season.
