Sebastian Vettel has conceded there is no quick fix to the woes that are resulting in sleepless nights for Red Bull Racing.
The reigning four-time Formula One world champion endured yet more pre-season problems at the start of the second test on Wednesday in Bahrain.
Just 21 laps were completed over the four days in the first test, in Jerez last month, due to issues with both the packaging of the car and the Renault power unit.
At the Sakhir circuit, after taking almost four-and-a-half hours to emerge from the garage, the troubled RB10 managed only 14 laps before catching fire on track due to a rear-brake glitch. “We are working flat out to get on top of the issues,” said Vettel, who managed a lap of one minute, 40.224 seconds to finish fifth on the time sheet, more than three seconds down on Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.
“Our guys are getting very little sleep right now, but it also seems to be clear there is no such thing as a quick fix.
“We fixed the problems from Jerez with the temperature but we are in a phase where you fix one problem and another pops up.
“So yes, there are things to solve from Red Bull’s side, in terms of reliability, as well as stuff from the Renault side. It wouldn’t be fair to separate these two.”
Hulkenberg was comfortably out in front with a lap of 1:36:880, allaying fears this year’s cars – given the switch from the 2.4-litre V8 engines to the 1.6-litre V6 turbos – would be slower.
The German’s lap, backed by Mercedes power, was a 10th of a second faster than the best posted in last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, by Vettel.
Hulkenberg finished 0.999 seconds up on Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, with Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen – again with a Mercedes power unit – close behind.
* Press Association
