Has Red Bull gotten the measure of Brawn?

To say that German driver Sebastian Vettel is the “youngest” driver to make his mark on Formula 1 is like saying that Singapore is a “fine” city. By taking part in Friday practice for the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix, Vettel became the youngest Formula 1 driver to drive at a Grand Prix weekend – at the tender age of 19 years and 53 days.

In the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Vettel became the youngest driver to lead a Formula 1 race. He also became the “rookiest” driver to get a penalty in F1, being fined $1,000 a mere nine seconds into his career – after speeding in the pitlane. He then went on to become the sixth youngest driver to start a Grand Prix and the youngest driver to score points in a Grand Prix – both in the US GP when he substituted for the recuperating Robert Kubica who had a horrific accident at the previous Canadian GP.

During qualifying for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, he became the youngest F1 driver to win pole position. He went on to win the race, making him the youngest Grand Prix winner by nearly a year. Vettel is also the youngest driver to achieve maiden victories for two different teams.

Why all this attention on one young driver? Because this young driver seems to be the only one currently capable of taking the fight to the overwhelmingly dominant Brawn F1 GP team. More importantly for the rest of us, he is the only one keeping the races from turning into a boring Brawn-led procession, race after race.

The young German hotshoe taught his F1 peers – which included three past and present world champions – how to drive an F1 car at the British GP three Sundays ago, dominating the race from start to finish and never giving his rivals a sliver of a chance.

It was an important psychological boost for both the young German, who just turned 22 last Friday, and Red Bull, the team he drives for. Starting from pole position, Vettel’s start and opening stint were sensational, as he pulled away by at least a second a lap from Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello who was in second place.

Such was his pace that his teammate Australian Mark Webber was a whopping 17 seconds behind by the time Vettel settled down to a more “sedate” half-a-second a lap faster than the rest.

Sure, the rapid Aussie can claim that he got baulked by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen during qualifying. But Vettel had done his flying lap with a higher fuel load than Webber, so the writing was on the wall. (In fairness to Webber, he got the measure of his teammate in Spain and Turkey – which is more than we can say for Barrichello in relation to his teammate, current points leader Jenson Button.)

Speaking of Brawn, Silverstone was, without a doubt, the worst result of the year for the heretofore invincible team. And even though none of the other cars really threatened Barrichello, the minimally sponsor-decaled white cars were still some way short at what many expected to be a dominant showing in its home race.

Ross Brawn would say that this was down to the track’s cool temperatures more than anything, which kept them from maximizing the performance from their tires. The German GP this coming weekend should validate (or refute) that claim, as Nurburgring and Budapest (the two upcoming races) are likely to be warmer venues.

On a side note, Ferrari seems to have gotten over its comedy of errors in the past races. The Scuderia, in fact, sprang perhaps the biggest surprise of the race by vaulting Felipe Massa from an obscure 11th in qualifying to 4th place by the time he crossed the finish line. By getting a good start, running a long first stint and then a similarly lengthy middle stint, the Brazilian charger managed to jump Button, Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg, the latter piling enough points (he started from 7th and finished in 5th) to move Williams into 5th place in the constructors points ahead of McLaren, whose car’s aerodynamic shortcomings are all too obvious on the fast, flowing circuits.

And Button? He salvaged a couple of extra points by leapfrogging Trulli and Raikkonen at the second pitstops. Button still leads the championship comfortably, however – by 23 points from Barrichello and 25 from Vettel. But with Red Bull and Vettel seemingly getting stronger and faster race by race – and with the German Grand Prix being the halfway point of the season – is this a portent of things to come? Are we looking at the turning point?

Button is vastly more experienced than Vettel, but the Brit has never found himself in contention for the championship, either. Still he’s been driving like a champion, consistently pulling a fast one in the dying stages of qualifying to snatch pole, or effortlessly upping his pace when his rivals close in on him on the track, or setting fastest laps in the race.

Then there are the people behind the scenes. Ross Brawn is the master strategist since his Ferrari days while Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey is the genius behind all those championship-winning McLarens. His Red Bull doesn’t have the Brawn’s controversial double diffuser but is obviously as effective on the track.

These in-born racers are going to wrack their brains (and that of the rest of their teams), push their drivers, and improve their cars relentlessly. Oh, what a cliffhanger the second half of the season will be!

Here’s a Backset Driver reaction from our comment about the tax on “green cars” last week. It’s quite scathing. But hey, it’s a free country…

Regarding the tax on eco-friendly cars – WELL THIS HOW IT GOES – “I/we don’t give a ‘S...T’ about your arguments –JUST SHOW US THE MONEY (taxes)”. Remember the Pork-Barrel needs of our “Tongress” has precedence over all! – Incredulous

And here’s a comment from our website (and subsequent reply from one of our other readers) on the Ford Everest story from last week…

I believe that when you write something about the car, you should at least indicate the price. Or the gasoline consumption. – makatarungan

I don’t want to play the role of hero for our “Backseat Drivers” (I don’t know them personally), but what you are asking about or what you want to know is just a “click away”. Maybe your mouse rolls faster than your eyes that you missed the “Related Article” link (Ford unleashes new Everest/Jun 10, 2009). Sometimes shortcuts don’t always give the best results... Excerpt here: “I wasn’t able to join the drive all the way to Baguio, but for fuel economy figures, Ford claims that the 2.5-liter Everest consumes 8.8 liters per 100 kilometers for an effective range of 678 kilometers per tankful. The 3-liter Everest 4x4, on the other hand, consumes 9.2 liters per 100 kilometers for a 644-km range. Pricing for the new Everest starts at P1.33M for the 4x2 2.5 M/T, goes up to P1.385M for the 4x2 2.5 A/T, P1.47M for the 4x2 LTD 2.5 A/T, and tops out at P1.695M for the 4x4 LTD 3.0 A/T.” – KERSMcpherson (Yes, folks, I believe that our website counterparts from philstar.com have done a fine job of posting related articles that might help give you readers better background information on what we write… Thanks for the clarification, KERSMcpherson, even if it’s true – we don’t know you personally.)

We have a new service provider for your text comments. To register, text philstar <space> name, gender, birthdate, address and send to 2256 (all networks). Once registered, you can post your text comments to Backseat Driver by texting philstar <space> motoring <space> your message, and send to 2256 (all networks). Of course, you may still log on to www.philstar.com and blog your comments.