Dr Marko suspects "cracks" in Vettel’s car

Sebastian Vettel will definitely be at the wheel of a new ‘Suzie’ for the start of the European season.

Earlier this week, we reported that Red Bull was looking into whether an underlying fault with his 2014 car was contributing to the reigning world champion’s struggle to keep up with teammate Daniel Ricciardo. So when a new version of the RB10 is built by the Milton-Keynes team, “Vettel will get it,” Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko said.

Marko has now told Germany’s Auto Bild that Vettel’s new 2014 chassis will be ready for the first European race, at Barcelona mid next month. “It’s already been decided,” he said. “In Barcelona, Sebastian will have a new chassis, because sometimes even a small hairline crack can have large consequences,” Marko explained.

He said Vettel has run into this sort of trouble before, and overcome it. “In 2012, Sebastian had problems compared with Mark Webber, but after a chassis change suddenly everything was much better and when he regained his confidence, he was almost unbeatable and won the title,” added Marko. Vettel always gives his F1 cars a female name, and for the 2014 season, Adrian Newey’s V6-powered RB10 is called ‘Suzie’.