Assessment: The Red Bull team loses significantly in Italy

In the image of abandonment, the first of the season for Mark Webber, Red Bull – Renault significantly loses ground in the championship. The weekend’s results are catastrophic for Christian Horner’s team: 17 points lost to Brawn GP in just one race. Australian Webber, who dreamed of succeeding Alan Jones, the last Australian to win a Formula 1 World Championship, can now focus on the upcoming races and hope for a stroke of luck. His retirement does not favor him in the championship standings.

As for Sebastian Vettel, it’s a symbolic point that avoids a black weekend in Italy. Now, destiny is no longer in the hands of the Red Bull drivers, but in those of the Brawn GP drivers. The upcoming Grand Prix, starting with Singapore and Suzuka, will be decisive in the race for the title.

Sebastian Vettel – 8th:

«I think we had a good start and a good first lap, but then I had to fight to keep up with the leading cars. The biggest problem today was the first 5 to 10 laps when I was struggling with the car without grip and sliding a lot. I lost a lot of time. Overall, we didn’t have the speed, and it wasn’t the best track for our car. The championship isn’t over – our goal is to do our best, and we are here to win races, so we need to focus on that. Everything else is out of our hands.»

Mark Webber – Retirement :

I got off to a reasonable start, I tried to find an opening in the chicane. I had Sebastian right in front of me, I didn’t want to take any risks. I was following Sebastian, but I had a racing incident with Robert Kubica. It seems his front wheel touched my car in the second chicane. It was hard to see he was there. I couldn’t have done things differently. It’s frustrating to retire due to a minor incident, especially when the mechanics put in a lot of effort for the car’s preparation. It’s obviously not great for the driver championship, but it’s my first retirement of the season. We will bounce back.

Christian Horner – Team Principal:

A disappointing start when Mark was hit by one of the two BMWs and Sebastian lost some time in the first stint behind Kubica, who had a damaged wing. Afterwards, we were lucky to recover a point following Hamilton’s accident. Unfortunately, we weren’t fast enough today – it’s our worst performance of the year. Hopefully, the upcoming circuits will be more in our favor.