The boss of the Red Bull Racing team, Dietrich Mateschitz, has said that the caffeinated team must be fighting for the title this season after their breakthrough season in 2009, while casually sidestepping questions about Kimi Raikkonen.
Mateschitz saw his team secure their best-ever championship result in 2009, with the team winning six races and ending second in the constructors championship, behind Brawn GP. Sebastian Vettel was the drivers championship runner-up, while Mark Webber placed 4th overall.
And the Austrian is not in any mood for the team to back off in 2010, saying that the team's ambition should be to fight for the title after some strong testing runs for the new RB6 car, and adding that his long-time midfield team should now be classed as one of F1's big guns.
"We have realistic expectations that of course progressed each year," Mateschitz explained, "Last year we wanted to finish among the top three teams, which we achieved.
"This year we have to fight for the championship because we belong to the three fastest teams. The rest is not dependent on us but on FIA decisions, driver errors, reliability, safety car periods and so on."
He also bemoaned the early-season grumblings over the 'double diffuser' issue, with Red Bull taking longer than the other frontrunners to get their version of the Brawn-pioneered device onto their car. Mateschitz echoed the earlier thoughts of RBR design guru Adrian Newey that the diffuser issue ultimately scuppered their title hopes.
"At the start of last season, we were the only team without a double diffuser that could match Brawn's pace," he insisted, "If you consider we had to rebuild the car, Vettel had to accept the penalty after Melbourne, he could have been champion already last year.
"Now we have to continue where we finished last year. There is no guarantee for the championship, but it is a target."
He was also, predictably, asked for his thoughts on the increasingly tiresome rumours linking Kimi Raikkonen with a return to F1 in 2011 with the Red Bull team. Raikkonen is racing for the Red Bull-backed Citroen team in the world rally championship in 2010.
"This is nothing more than pure speculation," Mateschitz muttered when asked about the pure speculation, "We do not know what Kimi intends to do in one year. We have a very good relationship which makes room for speculations.
"But to tell you now Kimi will be racing for us in 2011 is not serious. If Webber provides top performances this year we will not reward him by giving his cockpit to Raikkonen."
Webber is the man potentially under threat should Raikkonen seek a return with the team, with his contract up for renewal at the end of 2010.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
