Red Bull: Paranoia, when it grips us!

« Frightening »! That is the word Jenson Button uses to describe, in the columns of The Express, the pace shown in Valencia by the Red Bull, which should now be called RB8-B as Adrian Newey has extensively revamped the rear of his 2012 car: « Sebastian’s pace was tremendous. He was on fire, and there was a huge difference in pace compared to the rest of the field. We hadn’t seen that for a while, » adds the 2009 World Champion.

Sebastian Vettel indeed made a strong impression at the wheel of his car before it was betrayed by an alternator problem. Convinced that the intervention of the safety car, following the accident between Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen, was intentionally ordered to revive the greatly threatened interest of the race, Helmut Marko, the grey eminence of Dietrich Mateschitz at Red Bull, hints, as a way of thumbing his nose, that Sebastian Vettel, even though holding an advantage of over twenty seconds at the time of the safety car intervention, was not “on the edge” as the saying goes: « It hurts terribly [for your rivals] when you are so superior. In the race, we had to tell Vettel: “Go slower! Even slower! And now, even slower!” We know all too well: if you are too far ahead, you lose more friends than you make. »

Difficult to believe, however, that the Austrian team and its double world champion refrained from driving the point home out of mere consideration for their rivals. On the contrary, Dr. Marko’s statements are intended to affirm that nothing can stop the Austrian team, not even any potential intention from the FIA to harm them. Christian Horner had already used the same tricks aimed at always giving the impression of being one step ahead of any potential attack, concerning the RB8’s perforated flat floor controversy, which the FIA had required the Austrian team to modify before the Canadian Grand Prix and to which the Briton simply responded that it was not intended to be used in Montreal anyway.

The fact is that today the Red Bull team, starting with Helmut Marko, is showing great paranoia, the downside of success according to the former Austrian driver. Already, last April, Marko claimed that the technical modifications introduced in the 2012 regulations were deliberately against Red Bull. This was followed by controversies regarding the RB8’s perforated floor at Monaco and the obligation for the men from Milton Keynes to revise their braking system. All this attention on the Austrian team is gradually making them paranoid, a sentiment that was notably reinforced in Valencia by the lack of penalty for Michael Schumacher when he activated his DRS under a yellow flag, which had resulted in a penalty pit stop for Sebastian Vettel at the last Spanish Grand Prix: a difference in treatment that Charlie Whiting had explained.

Latest example of “Red Bull paranoia”, Helmut Marko’s statements about Pirelli tires, which he believes were designed for cars with a simple design: « Normally, a tire degrades gradually, but with Pirelli’s current compounds, they work for one lap, and the next lap they’re done. I think it was in Malaysia with Mark Webber, we were on hard tires and added two notches to the front wing: a marginal difference but we were 1.2 seconds faster. We thought the car was great now, but we put on soft tires and were eight-tenths slower. The result is that cars with a simple design have an easier time finding the window where the tires work best. »

On the German site Motorline.cc, Helmut Marko believes that times are tougher than one might think for the men from Milton Keynes: « It looks so nice and simple, but it’s very different in reality. There’s so much politics involved. If Martin Whitmarsh wishes me a good day, I become really nervous and wonder what’s happening. » For the Austrian, Red Bull’s exceptional rise in recent years is the reason for the climate he deems harmful around the Austrian team: « The first reason is that we are not a car manufacturer or a traditional team. What makes it even more painful is that, with Ferrari, we managed to reach an agreement with Bernie Ecclestone, not only regarding the budget but also in prestige. That’s why our life is really difficult right now. »

But if the RB8 confirms at Silverstone the hopes placed in it at Valencia, there’s no doubt that the paranoia of Helmut Marko and the entire Red Bull team will not cease anytime soon.