Sebastian Vettel Winning 2015 Austrian GP Would Be the Final Insult to Red Bull
In the weeks ahead of last season's Austrian Grand Prix, the first in 11 years, Red Bull held a filming day at the track formerly known as the Osterreichring.
The company had spent countless funds and hours in an effort to resurrect a venue previously thought to have been consigned to the dustbin of history and, prior to the first Formula One race at the refurbished Red Bull Ring, they were keen to milk the occasion.
"Red Bull's Home Race, the #AustrianGP, is Next Sunday!! [Pic: The Red Bull statue in the middle of the track] #F1 pic.twitter.com/v4sd8QChT7
— Sebastian Vettel (@FansOfSebVettel) June 15, 2014"
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But for Sebastian Vettel, the four-time world champion, this was so much more than an average publicity stunt, a wasted afternoon and a sponsor-pleasing exercise of nothingness.
It was the realisation of a lifelong dream.
Rather than simply asking Vettel to provide the commentary on a lap of the circuit, or ordering him to indulge in some typical Red Bull wackiness, the team arranged a car-swap with Gerhard Berger, one of the most recognisable Austrian drivers in a generation—providing a physical link between the Osterreichring and the Red Bull Ring.
As his former Toro Rosso team principal drove the German's 2012 title-winning RB8, Vettel finally had the chance to sit behind the wheel of a grand prix-winning Ferrari, the F1/87/88C Berger guided to victory at Monza in 1988.
After spending his childhood watching Michael Schumacher dominate with the Prancing Horse, finally Vettel was surrounded by scarlet red. Finally he could hold that steering wheel tightly within his grasp. Finally that power, all that power, was his.
Driving Berger's Ferrari offered Vettel a taste of history that was simply unavailable to him at Red Bull, a team who'd only risen to prominence just five years earlier, and it was clear—as Seb removed his crash helmet in the garage to reveal the broadest of grins and a pair of bulging eyes—that he was smitten.
He wanted more.
And his departure from Red Bull to join Ferrari—all that power, all that heritage—was announced around four months later.
The face of the first grand prix in Red Bull's own backyard a year ago, Vettel returns to Spielberg this weekend as an outsider, an enemy, but with the ability to nudge his former employers closer to the cliff edge of Formula One.
While Vettel has made a near-seamless transition to life at Ferrari—winning the Malaysian GP, securing four further podiums and finishing no lower than fifth—Red Bull's first Seb-less season since 2008 has been a tale of frustration and humiliation, defined by threats to quit the sport and their distasteful, public row with engine suppliers Renault.
The French manufacturer's substandard power unit has been at the root of Red Bull's failure to reach the podium in the opening seven races of 2015, with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat scoring just 54 points between them.
Their season took a turn for the worse last time out in Canada, where Kvyat was the only Renault-powered driver to score a point. It is set to slump to a whole new low in Austria, where the grand prix will come secondary to a peaceful protest.
As reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, Red Bull will install new engines in their cars this weekend, meaning Kvyat and Ricciardo will start the team's home race at the rear of the grid.
Although, with the RB11 car unsuited to the Spielberg track and more favourable venues such as Silverstone and the Hungaroring fast approaching, there are valid sporting reasons behind the decision—there is little doubt the sacrifice is politically motivated.
The sight of the Red Bulls circulating at the back of the field with little hope of securing a credible result at their own circuit would send a symbolic, powerful message to Renault and F1 itself, showing the wider world how both had conspired to rip the soul from the most successful team of modern times.
The man behind the Red Bull empire, Dietrich Mateschitz, kickstarted the protest on Friday by telling Speed Week (h/t BBC Sport) how Renault had not only robbed his company of "time and money," but also "will and motivation," reiterating his quit threat by stating: "You can't force someone to stay when he wants to leave."
It was with that attitude that Red Bull greeted the news of Vettel's departure at Suzuka last season, with team principal Christian Horner telling Sky Sports, "If it's his desire to be somewhere else, it's not right for us to stand in his path," and explaining how the "lure of Ferrari" was difficult for the German to resist.
And while Ricciardo and Kvyat flounder at the back this weekend, as Red Bull and Renault take each other down, a united Vettel and Ferrari—who proved more than a match for reigning world champions Mercedes in FP2 in Austria, despite losing track time to technical glitches—will be fighting for victory.
Should Red Bull's favourite son win at a track that not too long ago was regarded as his natural habitat, setting the Prancing Horse free in the Styrian mountains, it would send a far stronger message than anything the home team themselves could muster.
It would confirm Ferrari, woven into the very fabric of F1, will remain everlastingly successful and attractive to leading drivers.
And it would be the final insult to Red Bull, reinforcing the suspicion that the team's glory days, which were always going to be short-lived, are long gone.
It is rare to have home and away fixtures in a sport with the global reach of F1, but a Vettel victory upon his return to the Red Bull Ring is surely the only possible result in Austria.
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