Red Bull drivers charging
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Mark Webber's 24-second winning margin on Sunday told only half the story of Red Bull Racing's performance at the Spanish Grand Prix. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel struggled with the balance of his car, suffered a small fault with his front aerofoil, lost time and a place to Lewis Hamilton at the scheduled pit stop, had a trip through the gravel, needed a second visit to the pits and - having crawled the final laps three seconds off the pace - still finished on the podium. That's how much the Red Bull-Renault dominated.
It was no surprise to see Webber set the fastest time in qualifying. Either the Australian (now twice) or Vettel have started all five races of the season so far from pole position. Taking the chequered flag has been more difficult: Vettel lost the first two races in Bahrain and Australia to mechanical issues, which Webber's performances were below par; RBR scored a one-two in Malaysia - Vettel ahead - but failed again to convert in Shanghai.
Had all the races been dry and the RBR-Renaults reliable, we would likely now be comparing this season with those in the 1990s when first the Williams-Renaults and then the McLaren-Mercedes were almost unbeatable. In other words, the times when RBR's chief designer, Adrian Newey, worked at Williams (1991-1997) and McLaren (1998-2005). We should not be surprised.
The Michael Schumacher-Ferrari era of dominance between 2000 and 2004 was different. Intra-team competition was 'verboten' by the German driver who had the team and its cars built to his personal taste. The result was five drivers' world championships (to add to the two he won driving for Benetton in 1994 and '95). Michael did not allow victories to be shared between the team's drivers - recognizing this as the easiest way for a team to have the best car and yet lose the drivers' championship. In 1985 Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet used the performance advantage of their Williams-Hondas against each other and gifted McLaren's Alain Prost his first championship.
What made the Schumacher-Ferrari era unpopular was the absence of intense rivalry in identical cars which we have seen this season between Webber and his German teammate. Pole position has usually come down to a marginally better performance by Mark or Sebastian in just one or two corners of the qualifying lap.
Of course, the Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes teams will use all their skill and resources over this long 19-race championship to catch and beat the Red Bulls. But if Newey keeps providing the fastest car, it's likely RBR's biggest problem will actually be their drivers robbing points from each other.
