Red Bull Racing said that it had no concerns about Sebastian Vettel’s car in the closing stages of the Indian Grand Prix, despite the sparks seen coming from underneath his car.
Footage of Vettel’s car showed that the front area of the floor under the nose was striking the ground at the end of the main straight – prompting questions about whether the plank under the car would be worn away.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the matter did not lead to much worry on the pit wall through, as the sparks appeared to have been caused by some debris.
"I think it was a bolt that has come out of one of the front parts of the plank, and it is that that sparked and then dropped off," explained Horner, when asked by AUTOSPORT about the matter.
"Unless it is something else that was caught underneath the car, but it seemed to disappear within a lap or so."
Horner said that the key to Vettel’s victory was in managing the pace to ensure that it did not take too much out of the tyres.
"I think we were unsure going into the race whether it was going to be a one-stop or a two-stop, so we didn’t want to take too much out of the tyres in the early part of the race," he said.
"It was a question of monitoring what was going on behind us, and managing the tyres. So, in that instant, you are not taking everything you have out of it.
"He then wanted to see roughly what pace he still had in the car at that stage, and of course if you do pick up DRS as well from a backmarker that can be worth half a second.
"In the first stint we were very strong and then it was a case of managing the race. In the second stint the guys were fairly nervous about the hard tyre doing a long stint and so therefore we wanted to make sure that we didn’t take too much out of the tyre."
Info: Yahoo.co.uk, Image: Red Bull / Getty Images
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