Race report

Formula 1

A realistic result for Red Bull in China

Sebastian Vettel: “I moved over for Daniel once I knew that we were on different strategies."

Edited: Apr 21, 2014, 11:32 AM

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing RB10.

Daniel Ricciardo, (Finish Position: 4th, Start Position: 2nd): “I started on the dirty side of the grid and had quite a poor getaway; I was spinning up on the line a bit too long and lost the two places. From then on however, I thought the race was good! With Seb, we were racing and you always want to hold on to your position, but the team radioed and he let me through. I did what I could after each stop and we improved the car; at the end I was doing all I could to catch Alonso and I think we got to within a couple of seconds of him as we went over the line. It’s going well with the team, I feel comfortable here and I did the best I could today. I really want that podium and we’re getting close!”

Sebastian Vettel, (Finish Position: 5th, Start Position: 3rd): “I moved over for Daniel once I knew that we were on different strategies. When I was first asked, I didn’t understand as we were on the same tyre, unlike in Bahrain, so I double checked. When the team said we were on a different strategy, I moved over and then, as the race went on, I saw more and more that I didn’t have the pace. There was no point in holding Dan back. I’m not yet where I want to be with the car, but it’s an on-going process; hopefully at the next few races we will make some more steps in the right direction. Our weakness isn’t in the corners, but on the straights. The first stint today was okay but after that I’m not sure what happened.”

Christian Horner, Team Principal: “I think the wet conditions in qualifying yesterday helped us get higher starting positions up the grid. In today’s dry race, ultimately fourth and fifth is realistically where we were this weekend. Mercedes again were particularly strong and Ferrari carried their form through from Friday into a dry race today. Sebastian made a great start, but then appeared to go through the tyres quicker than Daniel and, after the second stop, it was apparent Seb’s degradation was particularly worse than Daniel, so we looked at switching him to a three-stop and therefore released Daniel who was very much focused on a two-stop at that point. Thereafter Daniel was able to close the gap to Alonso, but unfortunately we didn’t have enough to get onto the podium today. Fourth and fifth is still a solid result with good points. Heading back to Europe we know we have a lot of work to do.”

Thierry Salvi, Renault: “Again a race where both drivers had to work a lot to stay close to the front. Seb had a decent start but nevertheless had to fight against Alonso, while Daniel had an issue on his start but was able to make his way back to the front. A step has been made in terms of energy management compared to Sakhir, but it’s obviously not enough to come back to where Red Bull has to be. A lot of work is on-going at Viry to be at the top of the energy balance and trade-offs between the ICE and the ERS and we are looking forward to running at Barcelona to extract even more from the power units.”

Infiniti Red Bull Racing

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Read also :

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Linkedin

Share on Pinterest

Share on Viber

Previous article Team, driver deny Vettel ignored team order

Next article Another ten points for Sahara Force India in China

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

More from

Daniel Ricciardo



Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"

Formula 1

Formula 1

Barcelona-Catalunya GP

Daniel Ricciardo shares heartfelt message after first Indy 500 visit brought back "childhood feelings"



Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP

Formula 1

Formula 1

Canadian GP

Lando Norris reunites with Daniel Ricciardo for Indy 500 celebrations after disastrous Canadian GP



Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit

Formula 1

Formula 1

Canadian GP

Daniel Ricciardo says life feels "more real" after abrupt F1 exit

More from

Ferrari



Ferrari promotes F2 racer to F1 reserve driver role

Formula 1

Formula 1

Singapore GP

Ferrari promotes F2 racer to F1 reserve driver role



Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense



The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend

WEC

WEC

Barcelona

The six drivers doing double duty in Portimao GTWCE and Barcelona WEC this weekend

Latest news



GT2 European: Maserati ends on a high note at Portimao, with titles for Hartling/Thilenius and Gialdini/Njor

Sponsored

Sponsored

Portimão

55 min

GT2 European: Maserati ends on a high note at Portimao, with titles for Hartling/Thilenius and Gialdini/Njor



Inside the competition building F1’s future engineering talent

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

2 h

Inside the competition building F1’s future engineering talent



Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

9 h

Toyota clinches 2026 NASCAR Cup manufacturer championship early after dominant season



Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

9 h

Tyler Reddick really needed NASCAR Phoenix win for several reasons

Feature

Discover prime content



How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1

Formula 1

By Pat Symonds

How levelling the playing field isn’t antithetical to the principles of F1



Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Jake Boxall-Legge

Lights, Camara, action: How Haas picked F1's latest rookie for 2027



Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense

Formula 1

By Kevin Turner

Employing team orders can simply be a matter of common sense



Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Formula 1

Singapore GP

By Ronald Vording

Why Christian Horner sees history repeating itself for Adrian Newey at Aston Martin

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts

Subscribe