Red Bull Racing take third Constructors’ title

Second place at the United States Grand Prix for Sebastian Vettel was good enough to hand Red Bull Racing its third consecutive Constructors’ Championship title.

After starting the race from pole position, Vettel controlled proceedings deep into his second stint but when he hit traffic on lap 42 he was passed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and was forced to settle for second place. Behind the leaders, though, Mark Webber was in trouble, an alternator problem ending his race after 16 laps.

However, despite that setback, the 18 points earned by Vettel mean Red Bull Racing claims its third consecutive manufacturers’ crown, becoming only the fourth team to take three in a row alongside Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.

“I’m very, very happy for the team to win a third Constructors’,” said Vettel afterwards. “It’s been a tough year and they have been pushing incredibly hard; they deserve to win, as we have been the best team.

“Obviously Mark and I were pushing throughout the year. It was a shame for Mark not to finish today. It was a very good race and we did everything we could, but unfortunately we ran into traffic at the wrong time and lost the gap to Lewis. He used his chance well, I tried to cover the inside but he had more speed down the straight. I respect the positions; Lewis beat us fair and square.”

Team Principal Christian Horner was naturally overjoyed with the team’s third title.

“It’s incredible for the whole team to have won a third consecutive World Championship,” he said. “The Constructors’ is what we use to measure ourselves against our competitors and, for every member of the team, it’s how we gauge our performance. The Drivers’ obviously has the prestige and public following but within the team they carry equal importance.

“So, to have achieved a consecutive third World Championship, which only three other teams in the history of the sport have achieved, puts us into a very elite group and having done it in such a short space of time is testimony to all the members of the team. That’s all the hard work, the long hours and dedication from every department. It’s a very proud moment for every single member of the team and Red Bull.”

Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey admitted that the road to the title had not been an easy one.

“It’s been a difficult year and unfortunately my pre-season concerns proved to be right,” he said. “Having developed the car around side exhaust technology for the last two years, losing that was a bigger step back for us than our competitors and it’s been quite a difficult evolution to get the car back to where we wanted.

“Getting a third title shows we’re not a flash in the pan; we’ve managed to stay at the top, to understand the car and maintain consistency which is not easy at all,” he added. “The first title was amazing because when I left McLaren for Red Bull, it was a bit of a career gamble, I was joining with a dream of perhaps trying to win races in the future with the team that I’d been involved with more or less from the start. To actually fulfil that dream and to achieve three titles has been amazing. We can all have dreams, but to do it is something special. It’s not just me personally but it’s the whole team and this is a tribute to everyone within it.

“It’s been an amazing year. To achieve the hat trick is a tremendous tribute to the whole team,” he said. “It shows we’ve managed to keep our standards up and keep consistency. The hard work, the dedication, the talent of the people back in Milton Keynes – that’s what this is all about. I hope they are celebrating and having a drink tonight.

While Mark was naturally disappointed with his DNF in the race, he too hailed the team’s championship result.

“A third Constructors’ for the team is an incredible achievement,” he said. “Three years in a row is something that I think all of us would never have envisaged when we first started to be successful, so the results that we’ve had over the years is really astonishing. This Championship was probably the toughest one so far, for lots of different reasons and – it’s a cliché – but it’s been a real team effort.

“Looking to today, we had low battery voltage for a few laps before and then I lost gearbox sync and KERS, something was happening on the battery side,” he said. “It’s frustrating; as we had a reasonable start to the race and a good fight with Lewis. We had issues to manage, but even when I knew we had them we tried to keep going and get something out of it, but we had to stop.”

Seb’s second place in the race also extends his lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings. He now holds a 13-point lead over sole title rival Fernando Alonso, who finished third in Austin. The battle will now go down to the wire in Brazil next weekend a race Vettel is looking forward to.

“We showed we had the pace today and now it’s full steam ahead to the next race,” he smiled.

Source [Red Bull Racing]