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It’s been quite a difficult last few weeks for Formula One and another controversy is what the fraternity would have wanted to avoid. Post the Jules Bianchi accident in Suzuka and the Marussia and Caterham financial crisis, Red Bull Racing is in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Sebastian Vettel is expected to miss the qualifying session later today. The four-time champion has used up his full allocation of five power units and will need to fit a new one for US Grand Prix in Austin.
Vettel, a race winner at the Circuit of Americas, will see his RB10 with a new engine, a new turbo, a new MGU-K and MGU-H, and new energy store and control electronics systems. Vettel was on pole in the previous two editions, and has never finished outside the top two - he won last year's race, and finished second to Lewis Hamilton, at the time racing for McLaren, in the inaugural 2012 event.
But Red-Bull’s decision has got a lot of people talking whether this is how a penalty should be looked at and if the authorities should enforce that all cars participate in qualifying despite a penalty being enforced for the race. Red-Bull’s decision to sit out hasn’t gone down well with the media and fans as well given that the grid is already reduced to 18 cars. Red-Bull ,after being put under pressure from the FIA and the organizers, might ask Vettel to atleast participate in Q1.
Red Bull’s view
Red-Bull are of the view that it doesn’t make sense for them to participate in Qualifying as the German driver would anyhow be starting from the pit-lane on Sunday and would not affect the grid position. Having used the allotted quota of 5 engines for the complete season (as per new rules), Red-Bull thought it was better to skip the session as it might affect them in the last two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Vettel also expressed his thought on the rule that it wasn’t an ideal situation where a driver is left stranded and helpless to do anything until the race.
The flip side
While the FIA has been put into question for penalizing the drivers and teams for a new engine, Red Bull have been blamed for being not sporting enough. As Formula One tries to recover from the aftermath of the Financial crisis seeing two teams sitting out the last three races, an instance like this might adversely affect the Formula One brand and as a sport in general. Formula One fans especially in the US too have been vocal about it on social media disagreeing to the strategy followed by Red Bull.
Questions are already being raised with respect to the financial conditions of the teams, the new regulations and also the decline in the audience despite introduction of new tracks during the season. From the FIA’s point of view ,which is in damage control after the controversies that rocked the sport recently, the rule was already communicated to the teams and drivers at the beginning of the season and hence it shouldn’t be taken as a surprise.
Whether or not the rule would be revised for the next season remains to be seen but a strategy followed by Red-Bull surely doesnt project a good image of team and the sport and leads to a loss of credibility in the eyes of the fans and in general.
