Sebastian Vettel may have completed just two laps behind the wheel of his new RB10, but he’s already come to the conclusion that they require far more input from the driver if they’re ever going to complete a race distance.
Speaking after the opening test session in Jerez, which for Red Bull was delayed until the final 15 minutes because of a ‘technical issue’, Vettel said the learning curve will be a steep one.
“If you drive like last year you won’t see the chequered flag,” he told the official F1 website. “That much is fact.
“Racing will change,” he added. “Full throttle looks like a thing of the past. How different it will really be you can ask me again after the first race in Australia. Then we should all have a realistic view on the do’s and don’ts of driving under race conditions.
“What I can say is that right now the learning curve is pretty steep. Every day we work with the car we know so much more about it than the day before – and it will be a question of whether everybody on the grid manages that curve.
“Right now I would bet my money on consistency [to win the title] rather than on speed. But, as I said, that’s right now.”
