My Trip to the Red Bull Factory

June 7, 2013 in F1 2013, Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing, Sebastian Vettel, Sebastien Buemi

Earlier in the year I ran the Silverstone Half Marathon to raise money for Wings For Life (thank you very much to those of you who very kindly sponsored me), as a reward those of us who took part were treated to a trip around the Red Bull factory. 

This post will be pictures for the most part as I can’t say too much, nor were we allowed to take pictures of the really exciting stuff for obvious reasons.

Red Bull Racing

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What Alonso and Vettel Need To Do To Win The 2012 World Championship

November 20, 2012 in F1 2012, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel

F1 Constructors Championship Trophy

(Photo credit: Cristiano Betta)

2012 Has provided us with a brilliant and unpredictable year of racing, and to the delight of Formula 1 fans everywhere, the 2012 World Championship will be decided at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo this weekend. 

After running away from the rest of the field, there are only two title contenders left; reigning champion Sebastian Vettel and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, both of which are desperate and determined to win their third World Championship this year.

So what do Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso need to achieve on Sunday to take their third World Championship? Thankfully the Telegraph have done the hard work for us F1 fans, so here are the stats.  Read the rest of this entry →

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Sebastian Vettel Starts Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from the Back of the Grid.

November 3, 2012 in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, F1 2012, Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) at Nissan Global H...

Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) at Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a not too surprising decision, Sebastian Vettel will start the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix from 24th, bringing Fernando Alonso firmly back into the Championship.

Renault ordered Vettel to stop his car out on track as he made his way back to the pit lane after finishing Qualifying in third place. The stewards then deliberated for hours about what decision to make, knowing full well that whatever decision they made would have a huge impact on the Championship.

Four hours later, the decision came that Vettel would be disqualified from Qualifying and will start the race from the back of the grid. The reason for his disqualification was because his RB8 was found to have 850 ml of fuel left in it, when regulations requite 1 litre of fuel for sampling. Earlier in the year, Lewis Hamilton suffered the same fate when his car failed to make it back to the pit lane at the end of Qualifying.

While this will no doubt be devastating for Vettel, it’s exactly what second place man Alonso needs. Vettel and Alonso are currently seperated by a mere 13 points. With Vettel starting from 24th on a circuit where overtaking is nothing short of difficult, Alonso could well be leading the Championship by the end of tomorrow’s race. This also means that the Championship is likely to go down to the last race of the season in Brazil.

Vettel’s disqualification means that everyone who qualified below 4th place will be moved up the grid by one place.

What do you think of the decision? How do you think it’s affected the Championship? 

 

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Is The 2012 Formula 1 World Championship Already Wrapped Up?

October 31, 2012 in F1 2012, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel

Formula One 2010 Rd.16 Japanese GP: Sebastian ...

Formula One 2010 Rd.16 Japanese GP: Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) at autograph session on Thursday. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A question many fans will be asking themselves at the moment, either willing Sebastian Vettel on to take his third consecutive World Championship, or wondering what on earth Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso can pull out of the bag to stop him.

As the Formula 1 circus heads into Abu Dhabi, Vettel has a 13 pint lead on the World Championship and is looking on course to take his third consecutive title, so main rival Fernando Alonso is going to have to pull something special out of the bag to stop him.

How Vettel can win

The most obvious answer is for him to just keep doing what he’s doing now, which is dominating. In India he equalled Ayrton Senna’s record for leading every lap in three races, he’s not giving anyone else a look in.

The remaining three races look to benefit Red Bull as they’ve reigned supreme in Abu Dhabi and Brazil in recent years. Sandwiched between the two is the inaugural American GP, which has a first sector that looks like it will favour the Red Bulls. The huge back straight however, will benefit the Mercedes powered cars as they have the longest straight line speed, though you wouldn’t have known that watching Senna overtake Rosberg in India last weekend.

How Alonso can win

For the first part of the year while we were seeing a different winner each race, Alonso was consistently picking up points allowing him to lead the Championship. As Red Bull got over their start of the season woes, they became more confident and felt more at home in the car and it’s showing. Read the rest of this entry →

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Indian Grand Prix: How can Alonso beat Vettel?

October 27, 2012 in DRS, F1, Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Formula 1, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber, McLaren, Red Bull Racing, Sebastian Vettel

By Nic Redhead (Flickr: Fernando Alonso) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

After qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix, it is certainly advantage Sebastian Vettel in the championship race. Qualifying on pole with a single scorching lap in Q3, Vettel confirmed Red Bull’s qualifying pace and delivered a stark warning to his nearest rival, Fernando Alonso. Despite appearing to have the second best pace of the leading constructors throughout the three practice sessions behind Red Bull, Ferrari found themselves behind McLaren too, leaving Alonso in 5th position. With no grid penalties this time around to help him, the Spaniard now has 3 cars between himself and Vettel, none of which are going to aid him in pursuing the German.

The question that the Ferrari management, strategists and mechanics will be asking in their debriefing is “how can Alonso beat Vettel?” Unfortunately, the answer will be, “he can’t”. Almost certainly the words “damage limitation” will be muttered in Italian too.

Vettel holds such a monopoly over the rest of the field now in terms of qualifying pace that it doesn’t necessarily matter if he doesn’t have the fastest pace on race day. Vettel will have a rear-gunner right behind him, in the form of the supposedly non-yielding Mark Webber. Even the most uninformed of pundits would be able to detect that that interview on Thursday was just fighting talk, and that he’ll be supporting Vettel. With his help, just like in Korea and Japan, Vettel can easily deploy the tactics which proved so formidable in 2011.

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Indian GP qualifying: It all feels very last year…

October 27, 2012 in Bruno Senna, Caterham, F1, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, FIA, Force India, Formula 1, Grand Prixs, HRT, Jenson Button, Kamui Kobayashi, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Lotus, Mark Webber, Marussia, McLaren, Mercedes, Michael Schumacher, Narain Karthikeyan, Nico Hulkenberg, Pastor Maldonado, Paul di Resta, Red Bull Racing, Romain Grosjean, Sauber, Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez, Teams & Drivers, Toro Rosso, Williams

After this morning’s qualifying session for the Indian Grand Prix, most fans would be forgiven for thinking that they had been transported back in time. Just as in Korea and Japan, Red Bull dominated in a fashion reminiscent to 2011, securing another 1-2 result and confirming that, in qualifying trim at least, they are indeed in a league of their own.

Unlike Korea, it was Sebastian Vettel who took top spot, with Webber following closely behind. Their commanding performance crushed McLaren and, most importantly for the drivers championship, Ferrari, who could only manage 3-4 and 5-6 respectively. The result will be of particular concern for Fernando Alonso in fifth, who has three cars between him and Vettel. Read the rest of this entry →

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2013 Line up excitement has already begun!

July 10, 2012 in F1 2013, Ferrari, Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing

On the back of his win at Silverstone, Red Bull Racing announced today that they had re-signed Mark Webber for the 2013 season, despite claiming they were in no hurry to talk about contracts.

Webber has been with the team for seven years now and understandably feels comfortable at the team, with their performance this year (although not as dominant as last year) it’s hard to see why Webber would even contemplate leaving. With Sebastian Vettel signed with the team until the end of 2014, Red Bull Racing’s line up will remain unchanged for the 2013 season.

An interview with Mark Webber, released by Red Bull themselves, revealed that the Australian driver had been in talks with Ferrari, which raises one very interesting question;

Who will replace Felipe Massa? Read the rest of this entry →

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Sebastian Vettel: Comedian?

March 9, 2012 in F1, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel does a Kimi Raikkonen Impression

Someone told me about this today and of course I couldn’t not watch it, I don’t know how I’ve not seen it before.

What is it you may be asking? It’s Sebastian Vettel doing what appears to be stand up at the Autosports Award ceremony. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard an interview with him where he doesn’t lower the tone.

For the Kimi fans of you out there, there’s a rather accurate impression of Kimi Raikkonen.

It’s worth a click trust me.

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Why The French and Belgian Grand Prix Shouldn’t Alternate

March 8, 2012 in F1, F1 2012, Fernando Alonso, Formula 1, Mark Webber

Belgian Grand Prix, Spa, Eau Rouge.

I’m not even sure that I need to do a blog post on this, any Formula 1 fan will recognise the Belgian Grand Prix, held at Spa, is one of (if not) the best track on the calendar. Why oh why would we want to see it alternate with another track? Read the rest of this entry →

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Red Bull Bring Out Their Final Pre-Australia Updates

March 3, 2012 in F1, F1 2012, Formula 1, Mark Webber, Red Bull Racing, Sebastian Vettel

After winning both the Drivers and Constructors Championship in 2011, for the second year in a row, it’s no surprise that all eyes have been on the Red Bull during testing.

It appears that Red Bull would much rather they weren’t as they fight to cover the back of the RB8 after rolling out their final pre-Australia updates.

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