Monday, May 23, 2011

Slower race pace down to tyres

Christian Horner believes the tyres are the main reason why Red Bull's race pace is out of kilter with its qualifying performances.

After Sebastian Vettel qualified nearly a second faster than Lewis Hamilton's McLaren at the Spanish Grand Prix, it was something of a surprise to see the Red Bull struggle to shake him off in Sunday's race. Such was the difference from qualifying to the race that Hamilton believes he would have pulled away from the Red Bull had he managed to find a way past.

"I think our raw speed was… we were faster," he said after the race. "If I was able to get past I think I would have been able to pull away."

McLaren's Jenson Button added: "We obviously have upgrades on the car which have helped our performance compared to the cars behind but to see such a big difference in qualifying, a second to the Red Bull and then see our pace in the race, I was a little bit surprised."

But Horner said the tyres offered an explanation as they simply could not withstand the Red Bull's blistering qualifying pace over a race distance.

"It is all about the tyre," he said. "I think that we managed to extract a lap out of the tyre in qualifying that led to a hugely impressive margin here, but I don't think you can abuse the tyre like that in the race. You either do that and go for a five-stop, or you make the stints suit your strategy and react to the pace of people around you.

He added that the gap from one car to another would also vary circuit to circuit.

"McLaren was a lot more competitive as we expected they would be in the race. But it is funny because two weeks ago Ferrari was our main competitors, and in Spain we lapped them. So it varies circuit to circuit."

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