No panic for Red Bull

Quadruple Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel insists that it isn’t time for Red Bull Racing to start panicking.

The four-time drivers and constructors F1 title holders have really struggled during winter testing to-date.

During the test session in Spain, Red Bull completed just 21 laps during the four days. That equates to 57.7 miles.

Red Bull put the problems down to Renault’s new hybrid 1.6-litre V6’s and Red Bull Racing’s own exhaust issues.

Renault ran a number of various hardware changes, software bug fixes and calibration improvements during Lotus’s 60 mile media day ahead of the second winter test in Bahrain this week and that appears to have ironed out a few of the issues.

The Renault powered Caterham team completed 76 laps in four days in Jerez, but managed a much improved 68 laps on Wednesday in Bahrain with Robin Frijns behind the wheel.

That would suggest that the problems on Renault’s side have decreased, but Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Lotus all struggled on day one of the second test session.

Toro Rosso completed just 5 laps [19.5 miles], Lotus completed 8 laps [31.3 miles] and Red Bull completed 14 laps [54.8 miles].

Defending champion Vettel was behind the wheel at the time of his cars demise and was captured fire extinguisher in hand by the world media and looking very forlorn.

But when speaking to the media, the German tried to put on a more positive spin.

‘I hope [the car’s] competitive but we don’t know yet – it’s difficult to get a feel when you only get to do a couple of laps. Not everything is running smoothly yet. I think that’s most important – to understand how everything works,’ Vettel told Sky Sports after the Wednesday session.

‘You make your car as driveable as you can. Obviously we are still at the beginning…I don’t see any reason to panic. In a way, it’s a surprise but in another way it’s not, because we knew it’s a massive challenge.

‘We didn’t expect to have that many problems right at the beginning. But it is what it is and I know that everyone is working 100 per cent flat out to find solutions as quick as we can.’