Assessment: A great opportunity poorly optimized by Red Bull

The Spa Francorchamps circuit, like Silverstone with its long fast corners, was expected to be a track suited to the Red Bulls, particularly quick on this type of layout, and many observers predicted the Austrian team as the winner. But the Belgian Grand Prix was not smooth sailing for the Red Bull drivers, despite Button’s early retirement and Barrichello’s premature pit stop.

Qualified quite far down on the grid, the drivers had to take all the risks to climb back up the rankings, and while Vettel managed to finish in third position less than 4 seconds behind the winner, Webber received a penalty for a contentious maneuver on Heidfeld and finished out of the points.

Red Bull has indeed regained some points from Brawn GP and its drivers, but not as much as one might have imagined, considering there are only 5 races left in the championship.

Sebastian Vettel – 3rd:

If you look at the championship, it’s a good result today. Obviously, it wasn’t easy to start from the middle of the grid, but the start was good. I may have been too cautious in the middle of the first lap when I saw Nick [Heidfeld] off the track, as cars often spin back onto the track; I lost a position to Nico [Rosberg] and had to follow him after the restart. I lost too much ground to the leading cars in the first stint, but in the second and third stints, the car was fantastic, I made no mistakes and pushed as if I were in qualifying every lap.

«It was a pleasure driving the car and we were faster than the guys at the front. We gained points on the Brawn team today, so it’s good for the team and it’s good to score more points than Jenson [Button] and Rubens [Barrichello] for the driver’s championship. A big thank you to the team and compliments to Renault, after everything that’s happened to us in the last few races, it’s good to finish a race again. We have proven to be back.»

Mark Webber – 9th:

I had a good first lap and laid solid foundations to score good points today. But, at my first pit stop, I came back out in front of Nick [Heidfeld] and received a drive-through penalty for that. After that, it was all about damage limitation. I tried to get back into the points and when we had a clear track, which wasn’t often, we had a good pace but it wasn’t enough. It’s very frustrating not to score any points; I thought I deserved it with this driving but the drive-through ruined that. No one is interested in excuses, that’s what happened, so let’s keep moving forward and focus on the upcoming races.

Christian Horner – Director

A very solid race for Sebastian today. As soon as he had a clear track, he took advantage of his middle sector strength and significantly closed the gap to the leaders during the second and third stints. Third is a good result for him. Mark had a good start and a good first lap and was unlucky with his drive-through – it was absolutely marginal – and was unfortunate to miss out on the last point. In the end, we slightly reduce the gap in the Constructors’ Championship and have reduced the gap in the Drivers’ Championship, so it’s a reasonable weekend. Congratulations to Ferrari and also to Force India with a magnificent drive from Fisichella.