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View Full Version : More mechanical gremlins for Red Bull, Vettel in Bahrain



bigbadbrother
02-20-2014, 01:35 AM
Write off Red Bull at your own peril, given they’re likely to be on form once the Formula One community actually gets to the season opener at Melbourne, Australia next month.

But after the issues encountered in Jerez last month, and two weeks’ work at the factory, more mechanical gremlins popped up in today’s first running in Bahrain. Sebastian Vettel completed only 14 laps before stopping on track.

“We sorted out the issues from Jerez and we were able to do some laps today,” said the four-time defending World Champion, via the team’s official website. “However, very often you fix one problem and another pops up, which is what happened. That’s testing.”

Per veteran F1 journalist Adam Cooper, the issue today was brake-related, and led to a small fire in the rear of the car. It was one of several brakes issues reported.

Race engineering coordinator Andy Damerum said this was different than what occurred at Jerez.

“We are obviously playing catch-up and for us this was very much like a first test, so we were sending the car out to do one lap, then two and trying to build from there,” he said. “In that regard the laps completed were good. However, we were sidelined by a mechanical gremlin but one unrelated to the issues in Jerez.”

The next three days in Bahrain are crucial for Red Bull, as the team needs to get its issues ironed out before the end of the week. Full running at the second Bahrain test, without incident, will be the target at that point.

Vettel is in the car tomorrow as well, with Daniel Ricciardo taking over on Friday.