Vettel: “It will be more difficult” than in 2011
The reigning double world champion approaches the 2012 season with caution and expects a more challenging campaign than ever to retain his title.
Now armed with his new ride, unveiled this afternoon on the official Red Bull Racing website, Sebastian Vettel however expects a more challenging 2012 campaign than last season: « We always look back at 2011 and think about how special that season was, but to be honest, we don’t start a new year expecting to have the same or almost the same season again. It would be wrong to approach this campaign expecting to repeat 2011, quickly take the lead and open up a significant gap with other championship contenders. The fact is, at the beginning of last year, we didn’t really expect what happened, so I think it will be the same this season. »
For the double world champion from Germany, the new technical regulations, notably abolishing the blown diffusers from which Red Bull greatly benefited in 2010 and especially in 2011, should tighten the gaps, and a dominance like his last year would, according to him, be a surprise: « Looking at the cars, there isn’t really as much room for designers to express themselves and find something extraordinary. In the past two years, we’ve been stripped of two major developments: the double diffuser and, this year, the exhaust system. […] So I think it’s going to be difficult to make a difference. Obviously, we hope that our car will be better than all the others, but it will be difficult. I think the cars will be quite similar and the gaps will be tighter than ever. I think it’s going to be very, very tight this year, and another scenario would be a surprise, to be honest. »
While Mark Webber will take the wheel of the RB8 tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the reigning world champion will discover his ride and the new Pirelli tires on Thursday and Friday, at the close of the Jerez tests.
