Complete change of power unit would mandate a pitlane start
Monday 3 November 2014 18:34, UK
Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull are yet to decide whether he will sit out qualifying at this weekend’s U.S. GP but admits the prospect of using a sixth engine of 2014 in Austin is “very likely”.
The four-times World Champion has been on the brink of exceeding his penalty-free limit of five engines for the season for several races and at the last round in Russia team boss Christian Horner conceded Red Bull were resigned to the fate for Austin.
The use of a sixth internal combustion unit in isolation triggers a ten-place grid penalty. However, Vettel has also hit the limit for the five other elements that make up the power unit and a complete change of the system requires a driver to start the race from the pit lane.
With such a pitlane start scenario therefore a distinct possibility for the German driver in Austin, the suggestion leading up to the race has been that Red Bull may simply make Vettel sit out qualifying altogether to save mileage on the new system to avoid any further penalties over the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Asked at a sponsor event on Wednesday if he had accepted that was indeed his fate in Austin, Vettel replied: “It’s to be seen, we need to confirm, but yes we have to get an extra engine at some stage this year and it’s very, very likely for this weekend.
“Obviously we had quite a bad first half of the season in terms of reliability, a lot of things happening, which put us in that position.
“Practice we’ll definitely run and try to maximise the track time but more focus towards probably to the race because qualifying for us is maybe not that important if it comes to down to a Sunday where we start from the pitlane due to the regulations.”
While Vettel tempered his criticism of the rules - "it’s part of the regulations, I didn’t make them, but equally everyone has to respect them" – the 27-year-old accepted that Red Bull and engine suppliers Renault only had themselves to blame for their reliability woes this year.
The World Champion stressed he wouldn’t want to sit out any session this weekend but admitted that Red Bull had to do what was best for their management of engine mileage.
“You can talk about obligations [to run in qualy], but in the end we have to manage the situation with the engine. The rules are the same for everyone. Obviously it was our fault we had to be very greedy at the beginning of the season having a lot of issues in terms of reliability and not taking the engines to the end of their life,” he added.
“The situation is what it is. I’d love to change it, I’d love to say I can just qualify in a normal way and use every practice session to the maximum, but it doesn’t look that way. At this stage it’s not entirely clear, we’re still trying to make out how many miles we have to do as an absolute minimum to survive and of course we’d obviously like to do more. As I said, we’ll use practice, see where we are and go from there.”
