Friday: Red Bull must take the time to adapt

Red Bull is confident after its first day of testing at the Suzuka circuit, even though the pure results are not yet convincing. Australian Mark Webber finished the two sessions in 11th and then 13th place. Sebastian Vettel had a rough start to his day with only the 17th fastest time but bounced back well in the afternoon with the 2nd fastest time of the session.

Confidence is high as the team feels they have a good package to counter Brawn GP and possibly delay the titles of the team and one of its drivers, namely Button and Barrichello.

Sebastian Vettel – 17th and 2nd:

« During the first free practice, the track was too dry for extreme wet tires, and by the end, the intermediates were unnecessary as well, but it was too wet for dry tires. I think the general problem for everyone today is that teams are running out of rain tires; anything you use today must also count for the rest of the weekend, which is why there weren’t many cars running. »

« For free practice 2, there was a lot of water on the track at the start, and nobody wanted to take the risk of doing something stupid. Towards the end of the session, the rain became less intense so we went to check that everything was good with the car. The track is nice to drive on here, even on a wet surface. We are expecting more compatible conditions for tomorrow, but I think we have a competitive package regardless of the weather. »

Mark Webber – 11th and 13th:

« We only had a limited number of rain tires available for the whole weekend, so we couldn’t do everything we wanted. We did our best in the first laps with the tires available. The start of the second session was very wet, and it was impossible to learn anything, but we did a few laps at the end of the session to get an idea of where we stand. »