Monaco: Red Bull sound like sore losers for complaining about the Formula One tyres, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso suggested on Wednesday. The Spaniard, winner in China in April and Barcelona this month, told reporters at the Monaco Grand Prix that it was up to the champions to explain their comments but offered a theory of his own anyway.
"We know that Barcelona was a good race for us and not so good for some of our competitors," he said. Some of these competitors claim to have a super car but the last three pole positions were for another car, when the tyres were new. It sometimes happens when you win too easily for some years, it's difficult to lose some races after."
Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel have won the last three championships and have won two of the five races so far this season. Vettel, the sport's youngest triple champion at 25, is only four points ahead of Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen with Alonso third and 17 points off the lead.
Red Bull's billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz was quoted after the Spanish race, which saw a blizzard of pitstops and Vettel end up off the podium in fourth place, as saying the Pirelli tyres were damaging the sport....
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11:44 PM, May 22, 2013
Monaco: As a race, Mark Webber loves Monaco. As a place, he would much rather be somewhere else. Red Bull's gritty Australian racer has won the most glamorous event on the Formula One calendar twice in the last three years and counts doing so as one of the greatest thrills of his career. The great outdoors remains his favourite surroundings, however, and unlike most other drivers he has shunned the...
11:30 PM, May 22, 2013
London: Changes to the Formula One tyres due to be introduced next month will be less dramatic than some have feared or hoped for, supplier Pirelli said on Monday. Motorsport director Paul Hembery told Reuters that the Italian company would find a solution that all teams could agree on without the outcome having a major impact on the championship. He said the aim was "to make the changes that you...
07:05 PM, May 20, 2013
London: Formula One must have a permanent race steward attending all races if a licence penalty points system for drivers is to be introduced next season, according to triple world champion Jackie Stewart. Formula One teams approved the licence plan at last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix and it now has to be rubber-stamped by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) world motor sport council at a meeting next month. The system...
09:52 PM, May 15, 2013
London: Formula One world champions Red Bull could benefit from changes to be introduced at next month's Canadian Grand Prix that will make tyres tougher and longer lasting, supplier Pirelli recognised on Tuesday. The Italian company's motorsport director Paul Hembery hoped that would not be the case, however. "There have been concerns from some of the teams that the changes will favour one team or another, but we don't think...
08:21 AM, May 15, 2013
Barcelona: Mercedes will start the Spanish Grand Prix from the front row after Nico Rosberg had the fastest qualifying time ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton on Saturday. While Hamilton had the fastest times in the first two qualifying sessions, Rosberg edged him to win the pole position in 1 minute, 20.718 seconds. "The race is very long, and to win it's not good enough to start from pole - you...
06:56 PM, May 11, 2013
Barcelona: Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel posted the fastest time ahead of archrival Fernando Alonso in the second practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday. Alonso had the best time in the rain-affected first session, where Vettel drove more cautiously, but the Spaniard finished .017 seconds behind the German as sunshine bathed the Circuit de Catalunya for most of the afternoon's run. Vettel clocked 1 minute, 22.808...
07:26 PM, May 10, 2013
Barcelona: Fernando Alonso is hoping to close the gap on championship leader Sebastian Vettel at the Spanish Grand Prix. He says "until we are 75 or 80 points behind, we should be optimistic" about challenging for the Formula One title. The two-time champion trails Vettel by 30 points after just four races going into this weekend's event. But the Spaniard feels for the first time in years that Ferrari has...
10:57 PM, May 09, 2013
Barcelona: Kimi Raikkonen is confident he can put questions about his future to one side and fight for the Formula One title this season. Four races into the season, the 2007 champion is second overall and only 10 points behind three-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel heading into this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. Rather than play down his chances of a second F1 title, the 33-year-old Finn says "it would be...
10:53 PM, May 09, 2013
London: Ferrari's Fernando Alonso needs to make the most of home advantage when Formula One's European season starts up in Barcelona on Sunday. The Spaniard has ground to make up on Red Bull's triple champion Sebastian Vettel after four races in Asia and the Middle East. "If I was to score our overall performance, I would only give it a six out of 10," Ferrari chief designer Nikolas Tombazis told...
08:21 PM, May 08, 2013
New Delhi: Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber says he and Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel share a great camaraderie despite what happened at the controversial Malaysian Grand Prix. On March 24 at the Sepang International Circuit, Webber led Vettel after the final pit stops and the drivers were told to hold position by team principal Christian Horner till the end of the race. But Vettel passed the Australian after...
03:43 PM, Apr 27, 2013
Sakhir: The three-time formula one world champion Sebastian Vettel claimed an impressive victory for Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday that saw him go past the legendary Jackie Stewart into the sixth position on the all-time list of Grand Prix wins. It was Vettel's second win in four races this season and the 28th of his career. The 26-year-old, who registered back-to-back victories in Sakhir, extended his...
02:24 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Manama: Champions Red Bull claimed a Formula One first on Sunday by sending a female team member up to the podium to collect their constructors' trophy after Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix. Gill Jones, the team's head of trackside electronics with responsibility for all the electronics in the racing cars and garage, joined world champion Vettel for the ceremony at the Sakhir circuit. "It was great to send...
12:54 PM, Apr 22, 2013
Sakhir: World champion Sebastian Vettel won a Formula One race on Sunday without anyone kicking up a storm about it, at least inside the confines of the circuit. The last time the Red Bull driver had stood on the top step of the podium was in Malaysia last month, with grim-faced Australian team-mate Mark Webber and unhappy Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton alongside. The triple champion had ignored team instructions in...
10:57 AM, Apr 22, 2013
Sakhir: Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso recovered from a spin on Saturday to post the fastest lap in the third and final Formula One practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Looking for his second consecutive victory after ending a 12-race drought in China last weekend, Alonso completed a lap in 1:33.247 to finish 0.101 head of three-time defending F1 champion Sebastian Vettel. Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was third fastest,...
02:55 PM, Apr 20, 2013
Sakhir: Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen drove the fastest time in the second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, followed by the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel on Friday. Raikkonen, who won the season-opening Australian GP and lay second behind Vettel in the drivers' championship, was 0.03 seconds faster than Webber and 0.12 quicker than Vettel. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was fourth while his teammate Felipe Massa, who topped...
06:56 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Bahrain: With just three days to go for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Red Bull driver Mark Webber is in a big dilemma ahead of his career's 200th appearance. The 2013 season has also brought many troubles for the Australian. This season, just two drivers have reached the milestone of hitting the circuit for the 200th time in their glorious career. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari achieved the feat at the Malaysian...
12:33 PM, Apr 19, 2013
Sakhir, Bahrain: Having ended a 12-race drought with a dominant victory in China, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is quickly emerging as the most likely candidate to end the dominance of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. The two-time Formula One champion has the chance to overtake Vettel in the drivers' championship with a win on Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, a race that has drawn the ire of rights groups who complain...
10:46 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Manama: Formula One's most controversial race, the Bahrain Grand Prix with its simmering backdrop of teargas and petrol bombs, might just give Mark Webber something to celebrate on Sunday. Red Bull's Australian has had a pretty thin time of it recently but Sunday's race, in a tiny Gulf kingdom troubled by civil unrest since a 2011 uprising, will be the 200th grand prix of his career. The 36-year-old has been...
08:48 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Manama: Pirelli are coming under pressure to make longer-lasting Formula One tyres after Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix saw drivers lifting off the throttle rather than go flat-out to the flag. Australian Mark Webber started from the Shanghai pit lane and pulled back in again after just one lap to get rid of his Red Bull's quick-wearing soft tyres as soon as he possibly could. After seven laps, there had been...
08:17 PM, Apr 15, 2013
