Red Bull boss Christian Horner says that Sebastian Vettel and the team got everything just right in Bahrain – and insisted that the German had plenty in hand.
Vettel led the race from the third lap after disposing of Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg.
“Obviously we managed to get the balance just right for the conditions,” said Horner. “Sebastian did a phenomenal job of managing the tyres today, and he was totally in control from the moment he took the lead passing Nico Rosberg. Ne he then controlled the race beautifully thereafter.
“And at no point was he ever threatened. So it was an absolutely dominant display by him, very good strategy, great team work from the team today for in the end a very dominant win.”
Horner said Vettel did not simply take advantage of the delay suffered by Fernando Alonso.
“At no point was he stretched. He’d made the pass on Fernando before he had the issue, and was starting to pull away before Fernando picked up the DRS problem. I think he was untouchable today, I really do.
“I think these tyres are very complex, we got it just right today. The strategy worked, the strategy from yesterday worked in conserving those tyres for the race, and Sebastian had plenty in hand. When you’re in the window with the balance with these tyres then you can have a dominant display like we had today, but that window is very, very fine. If you’re outside of it you can be four or five stopping.”
He added that he wasn’t surprised when Vettel gave the team a fright by setting fastest lap a few laps from home: “Not really, I think we know him pretty well by now! I think he had plenty in hand. He got the DRS off Daniel Ricciardo, so the temptation was too great, seeing that he was already half a second off because of that DRS. You could see it coming a long way off…”
Meanwhile Mark Webber’s race was badly compromised by the Aussie using up the rear tyres prematurely.
“Mark’s was an interesting race, obviously he was running in the pack early on on the softer tyre, and he was just going through the tyres quicker than Sebastian. We undercut the cars ahead, we got him into second on the road, and the damage was done in the second stint. He started the stint very quickly, got himself up to second place in track position, but then didn’t have the range.
“He ran out of the tyres much, much quicker and then had to stop, he couldn’t go any further than he went. And thereafter byt the time he got to the third stop we were actually considering do we need to four-stop, because his third stop was only one or two laps later than Kimi, who was actually on a two-stop race. Obviously we need to look at it carefully and understand why, but definitely his degradation was very high today.”
Adam Cooper F1 