It’s been a while since anyone other than Red Bull Racing looked likely to win the 2011 F1 Constructors’ World Championship but still the team managed to extract some drama from their eventual triumph: up until the race itself began to take shape in Korea, they hadn’t looked favourites for a 10th victory of the season.
McLaren won on merit in Japan, they started in Korea by dominating the greasy conditions on Friday and still looked the stronger team on Saturday morning before taking pole position on Saturday afternoon. But all the time Red Bull were chipping away; getting closer and more confident all the time. In the end, Sebastian Vettel took the lead on the first lap and never looked back. As victories go, it was pretty crushing for the opposition and a nice way for the team to finish the job.
It also underlined just how dominant the RB7 has been this year. With 16 of 19 races complete, the record is impressive. 15 pole positions, 10 victories, 14 other podium finishes, seven fastest laps. It won on the low-speed streets of Monte Carlo and the long, fast straights of Monza. The one failure to score came with Mark Webber’s DNF in Italy, the result of a collision rather than a mechanical breakdown. The car has been fast, it has operated within a wide range of conditions and it has been robust. Or, as one rival gloomily summarised it: ‘unstoppable’. Head of car engineering Paul Monaghan was on hand in Korea to tell us how it happened.
'We were able to present a better package than the others and were able to beat them'
RB: So, Paul, how did you do it?
PM: The season has evolved around exploitation of certain performance items – it’s pretty obvious one of the main ones was the exhaust-blown diffuser, just witness the goings on at Silverstone [where off-throttle exhaust blowing was temporarily banned and Ferrari won their only race to date this year]. Otherwise, if you put the exhaust matters to one side, it’s a season of chipping away, learning, understanding, removing your performance limitations and trying to exploit the best you can get out of your car. Whether that is through floors, rear wings, front wings, whichever you choose to do. That’s about all. Nothing unusual really…
RB: It seemed particularly strange to see an RB7 winning back-to-back at Spa and Monza. You’re not supposed to be that competitive on the power circuits…
PM: By historical evidence and perhaps rumour I suppose, we weren’t necessarily looking forward to Spa and Monza as we might look forward to other circuits. If you go back 12 months, we didn’t do astonishingly well there last year, and yet then came on the flyaway races and did a lot better. I suppose that puts some trepidation into us, but full credit to the guys at the factory who produced a quite exceptional package for us and we were able to exploit it. It’s down to the whole team pulling together and producing a car which was arguably better than everybody else’s. It’s a better package, isn’t it? Regardless of which bit is best and which bit is worse, any of the relative strengths and weaknesses of it, we on the day were able to present a better package than the others and were able to beat them.
'As a team, we're harder to beat than last year'
RB: It’s interesting that Seb took the lead from Fernando Alonso at Monza, outside of the DRS overtaking zones. What does that say about the car? Was that move a surprise to you?
PM: I think it was a surprise to Fernando! Overtaking is opportunistic, isn’t it? Sebastian saw an opportunity and took it. I think it’s fair to say it’s unusual to see that move there but if you can get alongside for the second chicane and stop the car, it’s looking good – but it’s the land of the brave, it’s a proper job.
RB: Looking on from the outside, the tracks where you appeared to have the biggest advantage last year are the tracks where you’ve struggled the most this year. It seems weird: is that a statistical fluke or have you fundamentally changed the car?
PM: I wouldn’t describe it as ‘weird’. In our defence I think we have analysed our weaknesses from last year exceptionally well and put in place programmes to yield up the types of car that we enjoyed in Spa, Monza and Canada where we lost it on the last lap. In that downforce environment we’ve been very privileged this year. Is the flip side of that we’ve not been so privileged at the higher downforce circuits? I think you might argue some of our advantage has been eroded by the others catching up a little bit. We know some of our own vehicle limitations and we’ve made steps to address those.
RB: Last year Red Bull Racing won their trophies at the penultimate and final races. This year you have a three-race victory parade – but the car’s only won one race more than it did last year and the margins of victory often seem smaller than in 2010. Compared against their competition, is the RB7 a superior car to the RB6?
PM: It’s a good question and I really don’t have an answer! My personal opinion is you’re seeing the maturing of a team and a team that is well constructed, trusting of one another and, as an end product, are a stronger unit. As such we’ve been able to produce a good car and operate it well. And the competitiveness of the vehicle and the skill of our drivers enabled us to win races. If you put all of those things together then we have a very competitive package. As a team, we’re harder to beat than we were last year.
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