Traction control
German defending champion laughs off cheating allegations by rivals ahead of Korean Grand Prix
YEONGAM, SOUTH KOREA: Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel teased rivals puzzling over how his car could be so much quicker than theirs by jokingly referring to Red Bull’s ‘traction control system’ on Thursday.
Such systems are banned but the German’s pace in Singapore last month was so astonishing, with his car pulling out a 30-second lead in the space of 15 laps, that speculation was still buzzing ahead of Sunday’s Korean GP.
Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton told reporters that the last time he had a car that could perform like Vettel’s was when traction control systems were legal, although he did not accuse Red Bull of anything underhand.
Italian former team owner Giancarlo Minardi fuelled the speculation last week in a column on the Minardi website in which he suggested Vettel’s car in Singapore had sounded different to all the others including teammate Mark Webber’s.
Vettel, who could wrap up his fourth successive title this month, simply smiled on Thursday when asked whether he would be as dominant in Korea as in Singapore. “Well, since traction control will not matter so much, we may struggle a little bit more,” he said with heavy emphasis.
Asked in a later question about Red Bull’s 2014 car, the 26-year-old returned to the theme. “There’s elements of this year’s car going in to next year’s...things like traction control will obviously be...” he grinned. “We are pretty proud of the system we have because other people will never figure out how we’ve done it,” added Vettel.
BOOS ‘NOT NICE’
Vettel admitted on Thursday that the boos he has recently been subjected to were “not nice for sure”, pointing the finger at disgruntled Ferrari fans. “I noticed. It’s not nice for sure. But at the end of the day it’s not that everyone was booing, like some people put it after the race (in Singapore two weeks ago),” he said.