Why Red Bull Is Under Most Pressure Ahead of 2nd F1 Test in Barcelona
Sebastian Vettel may have fled to join Ferrari, but his influence, it seems, remains at Red Bull.
When the RB11 chassis was unveiled on the opening morning of the first pre-season test over a fortnight ago, the car's colour scheme was arguably more striking than any of its technical details.
The team's camouflage testing livery, of course, is intended to disguise the magic of the 2015 machine, the last Red Bull to be created by Adrian Newey, the legendary designer.
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But Christian Horner, the team principal, claimed that there was an added reason behind the paint job, telling Sky Sports' Pete Gill that it was inspired by a helmet design worn by Vettel at last year's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the home race of Ferrari.
Quite why an outfit would choose to honour a driver who over the winter had become one of their biggest enemies is anyone's guess—one suspects you'd never find Ferrari running a tribute to Fernando Alonso on their front wing—and the ploy served to highlight the contrasting fortunes of the team and their former driver at Jerez.
While a revitalised Vettel made the best possible first impression at his new team—finishing at the top of the time sheets on both days behind the wheel of the F15-T and receiving a round of applause from his mechanics—Red Bull were left to tackle the kind of issues which have become irritatingly familiar over the last 12 months.
Although this year's opening test hardly came close to matching the disaster that was the 2014 Jerez test—the team completed just 21 laps in total, as per the official Formula One website, before heading home early on the final day—Red Bull's poor showing at the Spanish circuit leaves the four-time world champions with most to prove ahead of this week's second test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
As per Formula1.com, Red Bull were the second-worst team in terms of mileage at Jerez, with the RB11's 166 laps a massive 350 behind the benchmark tally of 516, set by Mercedes, reigning constructors' champions.
More concerning than their distance from the top of the lap-count board was their gap to the bottom of it.
The RB11 completed just 87 more laps than the McLaren MP4-30, which spent much of its debut test stranded in the garage as the Woking-based team encountered several teething troubles with their brand new power unit, which forced McLaren to bring a premature end to their running on all but one day at Jerez.
The main reason behind the team's lack of running was due to Daniil Kvyat's clanger on his first day as an official Red Bull driver which, as Horner told ESPN F1, saw the Russian brush a tyre wall after running off track, damaging the one and only front wing the outfit had taken to the first test.
That mistake left Red Bull unable to record any meaningful running on Day 2—Kvyat completed just 18 laps, none of which were timed, as per Formula1.com—but the Renault power train, just as it was a year ago, was at the root of the team's unsatisfactory test.
Prior to the Jerez test, Renault—after producing the weakest engine in 2014—had boasted about making "substantial" changes and taking "a number of steps forward" in their quest to provide Red Bull and Scuderia Toro Rosso with a more reliable and competitive power unit this year.
Yet during the first test, Autosport's Jonathan Noble reported that "concerns about the durability of a small metallic shaft that is related to the Renault ERS water pump has left both its teams having to limit their maximum stint lengths."
Cyril Abiteboul, the French manufacturer's managing director, told the same source that Renault are "trying to keep things calm and under control" and admitted that only logistics had prevented the company from addressing the problem at Jerez.
However, on the back of a 2014 campaign which saw tensions between Red Bull and Renault escalate in the public eye, both organisations must surely live in fear of major, recurring engine-related issues.
Red Bull got away with a slow start last year.
Unable to even reach the end of the pit lane on the penultimate day of testing, the four-time world champions produced quite the turnaround, winning three races and finishing a comfortable second in the constructors' standings.
This season, however—with most teams finally having a strong grip on the new-spec regulations—the likes of Mercedes, Williams, McLaren and, indeed, Ferrari and Vettel will not be quite so forgiving when it comes to handing Red Bull points, podiums and grand prix victories on a plate.
The Renault-powered team cannot afford to be left chasing their tail as their main rivals rack up the miles and are desperately in need of a first clean pre-season test since 2013.
Starting in Catalonia, Red Bull should stop honouring Seb with jazzy liveries and start showing him exactly what he's missing.
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