Vettel Quiet on Red Bull Superiority in Barcelona

After the first two and a half tests this winter, everybody in the paddock seems to consider Red Bull as the big favorites for the 2011 Formula 1 season. Of course, being a defending champion often comes with tons of respect from the other competitors, but it feels like there’s more than just that with this Red Bull team.

Despite not pushing too hard in the past couple of days, reigning champion Sebastian Vettel kept topping the timing reports in Barcelona, giving the impression that Red Bull will once again become the benchmark squad this year.

However, the 23-year stopped short from making any bold predictions for the season to come, insisting that with so many new coordinates that will come into play in 2011 it’s impossible to make an opinion on how good a car really is. And since everybody is still in the “experiment phase” one cannot make any judgments on the cars’ performances.

“It's winter testing, and everybody is trying to prepare. It's very hard to judge at this stage where you are, how quick the car is,” insisted Vettel, who has now handed the Red Bull RB6 to teammate Mark Webber for the last two days of testing in Barcelona.

"You run through your programme. This year with the new tires it is very hard to read the lap times and performance of the other cars, so I think we have to remain cool and focus on ourselves. Obviously we try to improve the car as much as we can and then we'll see when we go racing and when the championship starts.”