Red Bull is lamenting the limited role that can be played in 2012 by F1′s aerodynamic genius Adrian Newey.

For the past few years, the energy drink owned team has enjoyed its dominance largely because of the airflow magic wrought by Briton Newey.

But in 2012, with reigning back to back world champion Sebastian Vettel just one of the five different winners so far, Pirelli rubber is king.

“I doubt Williams really know why they were so strong,” team boss Christian Horner, referring to Pastor Maldonado’s shock Barcelona pole and win last weekend, is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

Horner insisted that, rather than the winner being the team with the best overall package at each race, success this season is about “understanding the characteristics of the tyre and the window in which they work”.

“It’s not that the midfield teams have made a quantum leap aerodynamically from last year to this year,” Horner insisted. “But from a performance point of view, this is what they have done.”

The logical conclusion is that aerodynamic cleverness has taken a back seat.

So will Red Bull knock a million or two off Newey’s huge annual retainer?

Horner laughed. “Adrian is not just an aerodynamicist, and aerodynamics are still important anyway. But now it’s about harmonising everything, and these tyres are simply remarkably complex.

“Two races ago Nico Rosberg dominated, but in Spain he was almost lapped. It is very difficult to predict what’s going to happen next — a nightmare for the bookmakers,” he smiled. “A lottery.”

The situation has split F1 into two camps: those who love it, and those who do not.

“It has become like a GP2 championship,” Maldonado, the junior category’s 2010 champion, is quoted by The National newspaper.

“The drivers can make the difference and the teams can still work on the strategy and the car.”

The bizarre situation has left everyone scratching their heads, like Jenson Button.

He can scarcely believe that what looked a championship car – his 2012 McLaren – was beaten in Spain by Shanghai winner Nico Rosberg, who was almost lapped.

“The Red Bulls did a better job at the weekend than us in terms of points, but still they weren’t quick when you compare them to Williams, Sauber, Lotus and Ferrari,” he told PA Sport.

“Five different teams winning five different races, we really don’t know what’s going on, and I think that’s the same up and down the pitlane.”

He may be in Bahrain, but Fernando Alonso’s mind is thinking firmly ahead to Europe as the Spaniard prepares to struggle on Sunday yet again.

Ferrari’s number one driver squeezed into Q3 with the struggling F2012 on Saturday, and is targeting some minor points on Sunday.

“The two McLarens and the two Red Bulls are at the front, and there’s (also) Rosberg,” Alonso is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport, predicting how Sunday’s race will unfold.

“We’re not going to go past them. For us, we are racing behind the top five.”

He is hoping it will be his latest and last experience of life as a midfielder in 2012.

For Barcelona, the first European race of the season mid next month, Ferrari – so disappointed with its start to the season – is planning a major upgrade for the F2012.

An added bonus is that it can be tested at Mugello in early May.

“Despite our problems I am in third place in the championship, and tomorrow (Sunday) I have a chance to score well. That’s more than we expected.

“Next is Barcelona, a most important race for us. I hope the season starts again for me (there),” said Alonso.

Martin Brundle has described Red Bull’s lack of pace as the biggest surprise of the 2012 season so far.

After consecutive world championships with Sebastian Vettel, the energy drink-owned team was universally tipped as the pre-season favourite for yet another F1 title.

But McLaren dominated in Australia before Ferrari and Sauber surprisingly set the pace recently in Malaysia.

Former F1 driver Brundle admitted the struggling RB8 was the surprise of the opening salvo in 2012, but he also acknowledged that the turnaround might have been predicted.

“When you look at how the regulations have changed, it’s almost like they were designed to slow the Red Bulls down,” the Sky television commentator told the website of the BBC programme Top Gear.

“Doubling the torsional stiffness of the front wings, the way Red Bull were ‘flying’ their car down the track with lots of rake, nose close to the ground, exhausts helping to sort the high rear ride height out, it’s all been taken away from them,” added Brundle.

An unnamed engineer at Red Bull has admitted the team was caught on the hop in the winter pre-season, when it became clear McLaren was better prepared for the new rules.

“McLaren came with a (exhaust) system on the edge of legality,” the engineer told Germany’s Auto Bild, “and it was declared legal by the FIA.

“So (Adrian) Newey had to adapt,” he added, referring to Red Bull’s last-minute decision to change tack at the very end of the pre-season test period.

The message coming from the Milton Keynes based team, therefore, is that Red Bull is playing catch-up.

“We need to understand the car better,” admits team advisor Dr Helmut Marko, “which is why for the next race (in China) we will have hardly any new parts.”

So until he’s back at the front, F1′s formerly-dominant Vettel – who lashed out at backmarker Narain Karthikeyan recently in Malaysia – needs to adapt.

Asked if the German was justified in calling his Indian rival an “idiot”, Brundle insisted: “No.

“That’s just an angry man who hasn’t got a front-running car at the moment. He’s just frustrated.”

Michael Schumacher finally returned to the top three’s inner sanctum on Saturday.
“Who would have thought it last year?” the seven time world champion smiled in Malaysia after beating the formerly dominant Red Bulls with his Mercedes.

But the fact he was only beaten by the dominant McLarens in Sepang qualifying does not mean Mercedes is now ready to take on F1′s very best, boss Norbert Haug insisted.

Last weekend in Australia, the German team also performed well on Saturday before the tyres degraded heavily in the race — and in Malaysia, very high temperatures are an added factor.

“We are not equipped yet to take over from the likes of McLaren and Red Bull,” Haug is quoted by Sky Deutschland.

“To be the third force is definitely on the timetable.

“In Australia and also now in Malaysia we were the second force in the qualifying lineup, but the race is what counts,” added the German.

Paul Hembery has admitted Pirelli’s new soft tyre might not degrade quick enough in 2012.
The sport’s new supplier was lauded at the beginning of 2011 for spicing up the action by bringing tyres that quickly degrade.

But by the end of the season the teams had essentially solved the mysteries of the rubber, and in recent winter testing it seemed apparent that the 2012 tyre generation is not as inherently heavily-degrading as the last.

Motor sport director Hembery admits: “The soft tyres are not degrading quite as much as we would like.

“But you have to remember there will be 50 degree track temperatures in Malaysia. Also, the cars are still being developed, and over the course of the season will pick up downforce.

“If we have to heat up the show, we can always bring the super-softs,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

One positive aspect of the 2012 tyres, on the other hand, is that they are producing far less discarded rubber litter on the edge of the racing line.

“That should make it easier to overtake,” Hembery said.

Another positive is that the new tyres are easier to get up to temperature.

“Last year, only the two Red Bulls and Hamilton could get the hards to work,” agreed the Briton.

Jaime Alguersuari is staking a claim to a 2012 Toro Rosso race seat.
The Spaniard made his debut with the second Red Bull team in mid 2009, but Dr Helmut Marko is known to be considering the future of the current Toro Rosso lineup.

At the Brazil finale next month, whether Alguersuari or his more experienced teammate Sebastien Buemi will sit out Friday practice for French hopeful Jean-Eric Vergne will be decided by the points standings.

Spaniard Alguersuari, 21, was already ahead of Buemi prior to Korea, but he extended the gap to 7 points by finishing a strong seventh on Sunday.

He will therefore also be in boss Franz Tost’s good books, given the team’s late-season development push to catch up with Sauber for seventh place in the constructors’ championship.

Alguersuari told EFE news agency Korea was “my best” result in his 43 career races, as he was the highest placed runner behind the grandee Red Bulls, McLarens and Red Bulls.

“I think we’ve taken a huge leap,” he added. “I am very excited because next year we can have a great car.”

And if Marko decides to drop just one Toro Rosso driver at the end of the season, Swiss Buemi appears very much in the hot seat now.

“This is not important, only getting Toro Rosso ahead of Sauber,” insisted Alguersuari. “He (Buemi) is also doing a good job.”

Red Bull’s world champion Sebastian Vettel put himself on pole position for a second successive Formula One title at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday.

The 24-year-old, who needs just a point on Sunday to become the sport’s youngest double champion with four races to spare, pipped McLaren’s Jenson Button by just nine thousandths of a second in a knife-edge qualifying session.

“Yes baby, that’s what I’m talking about,” screeched Vettel into the team radio as he powered to his 12th pole position of the season, from 15 races, his fifth in succession, and Red Bull’s 16th in a row dating back to the end of last year.

“We got a new front wing out just in time, it wasn’t easy but fortunately we did,” said the German, who had a wake-up call when he crashed in Friday’s opening practice and damaged the nose of his car more than the team let on.

“We sat down after the practice session this morning and fortunately got everything together and we were able to get every single bit out of the car in qualifying which was crucial.”
Jenson Button

Jenson Button congratulates Sebastian Vettel after qualy

Button, fastest in all three practice sessions, is the only driver who can deny Vettel the title at Suzuka but he must win and hope the German fails to score to keep the championship alive for another weekend.

Vettel has won from pole for the past two years at Suzuka and has finished his last 16 races in the points, with fourth his worst result of the season so far.

“Nine thousandths not good enough, there you go,” said Button, who earlier in the week likened his challenge to Vettel to that of a four-year-old taking on an adult in a 100-metre sprint.

“I felt like I got everything out of the car. Fair play to the whole team, to be able to really fight the Red Bulls around here on a circuit they have dominated on is a great job.”

McLaren’s 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton qualified third and Brazilian Felipe Massa, with whom he controversially clashed in Singapore last month, will line up alongside for Ferrari in what promises to be a lively start.
Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton will start from third on the grid

Hamilton had been quickest after each had set a lap in the final phase of qualifying but then failed to cross the line in time to get a second run after Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher squeezed him out.

“With Lewis it was tight, we told him not to back up and let so many cars by,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh. “Unfortunately he got hustled by at the last corner and in so doing missed out on posting a time in the last lap.”

Hamilton was reluctant to go into detail but clearly felt aggrieved.

“I felt I had a couple of tenths at least left. I felt like I was in position to fight with these guys but it was a bit dangerous at the last corner, I had Mark attack me and I had Michael down the other side, it was very strange and that’s why I lost out,” he said.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Webber, looking no closer to winning a race this season, filled the third row.

Saturday, 8 October – Qualifying

Reuters

Jenson Button has travelled to Japan as the only driver apart from Sebastian Vettel still mathematically able to clinch the 2011 title.
But the Briton, who wears Japanese characters on his helmet and whose girlfriend is the model Jessica Michibata, told Die Welt newspaper that he knows German Vettel is the sure winner.

“There is no need to build sandcastles in the sky and kid ourselves,” said Button. “It’s really been clear for quite some time that Sebastian has earned the title. He’s been so strong all season.”

Even if Vettel cannot secure the tenth place he needs for the championship at Suzuka, McLaren’s Button would have to win in order to stay in the fight for Korea.

“On paper, I think it (Suzuka) will suit the Red Bulls, particularly in the high speed sweeps,” 31-year-old Button admitted, “but we showed at Spa that we also have a car that’s very effective in high speed corners.”

In a further blow to Red Bull’s hopes ahead of the Italian grand prix, Pirelli has issued yet another clampdown on its guidelines about tyre camber.
It had already emerged that, after the tyres on the winning RB7 cars worryingly blistered at Spa two weeks ago, F1′s official supplier had told teams to limit their camber angles to just 3.75 degrees at Monza.

Previously, the recommendation was 4 degrees, with designer Adrian Newey admitting that the camber on the Red Bulls in Belgium was set slightly higher.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the camber directive issued by Pirelli for Monza is actually just 3.25 degrees.

As recently as Hungary in late July, the recommendation was 4.5 degrees.

Pirelli chief Paul Hembery said Monza is “very hard” for the tyres, with aggressive camber increasing the risk of overheating “especially with the hot weather that is predicted”.

McLaren’s Jenson Button thinks the new cautious approach “will put some people in trouble” in terms of lap time.

Sebastian Vettel returned to the top step of the podium and extended his championship lead on Sunday by winning the Belgian grand prix.
But the German was sporting an angry face before the Spa-Francorchamps race, after rival teams refused to allow the Red Bulls to change their qualifying tyres due to blistering.

Pirelli had reacted to the situation by rushing spare tyres to the fabled circuit, but ultimately the likes of McLaren and Ferrari – and FIA chief Charlie Whiting – made Vettel and the sister RB7 start on their damaged tyres.

“We had a lot of concerns,” Vettel said after extending his points lead to 92 points over his teammate Mark Webber. “We didn’t feel too comfortable and we both had to stop pretty early.”

The Red Bulls finished one-two ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button.

“No wonder Ferrari and Mclaren objected to them wanting to change them (the tyres) before the race,” said BBC commentator Martin Brundle.

Red Bull is the only team in formula one with a perfect reliability record so far in 2011.
An analysis by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport shows that the team is not only dominating the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, but its two cars were the only ones in the field to complete the maximum 1,362 laps.

“Over the years it has been said that Adrian Newey’s cars were always fast but not always reliable. Those days are over,” read the analysis.

Team boss Christian Horner is quoted as saying: “We are now better at knowing how to deal with Adrian’s extreme cars.”

If Red Bull can maintain its perfect reliability through to November’s Brazilian finale, it will be the first team in formula one history to do so.

In a surprising second place – with 96 per cent of the total laps complete – is Force India, who source technology from McLaren and race with a Mercedes engine.

Ferrari is third, with Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa completing 89 fewer racing laps than the leading Red Bulls, closely followed by the works McLaren.

Matching McLaren’s 92.6 per cent reliability record is Toro Rosso, followed by Renault, Sauber, Mercedes and Virgin.

Williams’ tenth place represents a reliability record of just 84.2 per cent so far, or 215 fewer laps than Red Bull as Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado failed to finish a combined 7 races.

HRT and Lotus bring up the rear.

A quirk of 2011-style formula one is that Jaime Alguersuari is hoping to qualify poorly for the German grand prix.

At the first five grands prix of the season, the Toro Rosso driver was always in Q2 and even Q3 but failed to go on to score a single point.

But in Canada, Valencia and Silverstone, 21-year-old Spaniard consecutively failed to progress out of Q1 yet went on to score points on all three occasions.

“I wouldn’t mind not going into Q2 and qualifying eighteenth at the Nurburging,” he told Radio Nacional de Espana. “That way I keep a set of tyres.”

18th is the highest grid position possible without graduating into Q2 and having to use a further set of Pirelli tyres.

“I am sure about it because at first I did the opposite and it was very bad,” said Alguersuari. “I’d prefer not to qualify, have a good race car and finish in the points.”

Alguersuari, meanwhile, thinks Sebastian Vettel is right on course for the 2011 title.

“For me, the championship is decided already,” he said. “This year the Red Bulls don’t break down and, compared to us, are in a different galaxy.”

A defeat for Red Bull in the 2011 world championship will no longer require a “miracle”, according to Pedro de la Rosa.
McLaren’s veteran reserve driver admitted the mood had been pessimistic leading into the British grand prix, because Silverstone is a circuit “which appeared to have been designed for the Red Bulls”.

McLaren ultimately had a disappointing weekend, but Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were both beaten to the chequered flag by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

“Perhaps this has been the most convincing victory of the whole season,” he wrote in his column for formulasantander.com.

“The mistake with Vettel’s pitstop and Red Bull’s need to issue team orders to protect their number one invites us to think that the comeback is now not a miracle, it is a possible reality, difficult but possible,” added the Spaniard.

Alonso meanwhile said that while his win is a big morale booster, Ferrari’s new approach – more aggressive than in the recent past – will remain.

“Maybe it will happen that we pay a high price for that (approach) but there is no alternative,” he said.

“We are definitely not giving up, but we must not think about the championship — as Montezemolo said, we are keeping our feet on the ground.”

Pole position took a back seat to political machinations and so-called ‘exhaust blowing’ on Saturday at Silverstone.
Some commentators called the situation a farce, with team bosses storming out of meetings wearing a variety of expressions and spectators getting to grips with an apparently confusing mid-season rules change.

“I think the real shame is for the fans, not really knowing what’s going on,” said Sebastian Vettel, whose pole run ended on Saturday as his teammate Mark Webber mastered the changeable conditions.

But the real effect is still unknown, even though it appears McLaren has lost out, it’s business as usual for Red Bull, while Ferrari is smiling.

“Those that end up at the front will probably end up happy and those that are disadvantaged won’t be, and Ferrari seemed to come out of the meeting more smiling than some others,” McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told the BBC.

Eddie Jordan said the situation is “shambolic”, with a source saying full clarity is not due for “at least 24 hours”.

“It’s been a busy day and I’ve spent most of it with Charlie Whiting,” smiled Christian Horner, whose expression earlier on Saturday was grim, arguing that Red Bull is now running at a “disadvantage” to the other engine makers.

The qualifying 1-2 cheered him up, however, and darkened the mood of the McLaren figures.

“I don’t know where our pace has gone,” said Jenson Button after qualifying behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris on Saturday, “but I can have a guess.”

Bosses of the rival Red Bull and McLaren teams rowed publicly on Friday as the FIA’s blown exhaust clampdown took a twist at Silverstone.
It was scheduled that the governing body’s rules clampdown would mean all teams would now have to limit their off-throttle diffuser exhaust blowing to just 10 per cent.

But trackside observers during practice on Friday noted that the Renault runners in particular, notably the dominant Red Bulls, sounded conspiciously loud under braking and in the corners.

Indeed, it emerged that the FIA had succumbed to the French engine supplier’s argument that it be allowed to rev its power plants to 50 per cent off the throttle on the basis that it does not ignite the fuel in those circumstances.

In the FIA press conference, McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh bemoaned the situation as “cloudy, ambiguous and changing”.

But Red Bull’s Christian Horner insisted the FIA has been “right, fair and equitable”, with Team Lotus chief Tony Fernandes chiming in by describing the affair as “a bit of a shambles”.

Horner however said the original 10 per cent situation gave the Mercedes powered teams like McLaren “a significant advantage”, but Whitmarsh hit back by saying the Renault teams now have a “very substantial performance benefit”.