And yet it moves: the RB9 yields another secret.

Finding the "secret" to the Red Bull RB9's seemingly unstoppable performance in the second part of the season has been quite a quest for specialists and fueled much discussion among fans.

Towards the later part of 2013 interest began to focus on the T-tray area,  the flat section under the driver's seat which channels air to the the diffuser.   There was much discussion about images seen via the FIA's thermal cameras,  it was thought Red Bull had come up with a system which would allow movement once the oddly large amount of titanium fasteners were heated by friction.  This theory was championed by BBC's Gary Anderson and it raised enough interest for the FIA to perform a special test, applying heat along with the required 200kg force to the part.   It did not budge.

As it turns out Anderson was getting warmer.  He wasn't the only one, many were curious as to why Red Bull mechanics were both very protective of and yet constantly adjusting something in that area.    Giorgio Piola, along with Franco Nugnes at Omnicorse now shed some light on how Red Bull was able to run what is a completely forbidden moving aerodynamic device, perfectly legally!

First off, let's be clear that if a car passes FIA technical regulations as written it is by definition, legal. Making an end run on regulations and getting away with it is part of the essence of racing and engineering: the "Unfair Advantage", read it.

Newey, argues Piola, has always been a designer who has tended to miniaturize and willing to risk reliability to do so (case in point the size and placement of the KERS batteries which have caused many issues but were never changed).  It was a surprise then when in Brazil, thanks perhaps to the team being a bit more relaxed, a photographer was able to snap a picture which showed the inside of the t-tray and keel assembly.    It revealed a very large (for F1, 30cm) structure, bow shaped and hinged in the middle.

The structure, it is said, worked as a spring but only at values above the FIA's test.  A force above 200 kg applied to one side of the lever would raise the front of the t-tray enough to allow Red Bull to run the car lower and with more rake without worrying about wearing though the compliance skid plate.  

Combine this with the better exhaust blowing Renault engines were able to produce and the better way Newey  channeled  that energy to seal the raked rear and Vettel's ability to figure out how to take full advantage of the package and you understand how Red Bulls were able to regularly trounce their rivals.

Thus Spoke Montezuma: Luca di Montezemolo Unfiltered.

Above is an extended version of the interview Luca di Montezemolo gave to Italy's RAI. It's in Italian, which will make it hard on many of you, but I thought it was important to have the complete interview rather than have it filtered. The tendency sometimes is for creating headlines so after LdM's CNN interview you saw plenty of "Alonso is not number one at Ferrari" titles. That was not exactly what he said.

Of course since not everyone speaks Italian, like most F1 drivers apparently, I will try to bullet point as extensively as I can.

On 2013:

-Good thing it's over because it was a year to forget
-The issues of 2013 were three:  Our inability to develop the car in the second half of the season.  The change in tires damaged Ferrari which had designed the car around the original specs.  Massa did not produce points towards the Constructors Championship.

On Ferrari's supposed diminished political power within F1.

"I've been hearing this theory every since I started working with Enzo Ferrari in the 1970s.  We have signed an accord with Ecclestone and the FIA  making us the only team with a right to veto any decision so, more power than that you cannot have" "We are also very conscious of out weight in F1 because F1 without F1 would be a very different thing" "but in the end, power comes from creating a winning car and that has been missing from us, everything else is just talk"

On losing second place in the Constructor's because of Massa's penalty

"the penalty was out of proportion with the offense, as was Hamilton's.  Sometimes FIA stewards are just people with gold buttoned blazers who show up at these races and want to make a splash and have some rather ridiculous attitudes, this is something the FIA needs to address.  When you have  teams that invest so much and drivers who risk their lives, you cannot have someone with a little blue jacket trying to make a splash is not right"

On Alonso's frustrations

"Alonso is the strongest race driver in the field, he has lost three championships at the last race, I understand his frustrations, we have to give him a better car.  I gave hims an 8 out of 10 but that's because one needs to keep 10 in your pocket to motivate"

"I was mad when he said he wanted an RB9 for his birthday, but I was mad because, mostly he was right!  but he should not have said it publicly"

"Alonso is mistaken when he says he's competing against Newey, his real adversaries are other drivers, starting from Vettel who's a great driver,  but also Hamilton and Rosberg and Raikkonen who will be there to try and win, to push Fernando and to get us more points"

On Raikkonen

"Raikkonen, like Alonso and in the past Schumacher and Barrichello know that whoever has the honor to drive for Ferrari will never be able to damage the team.  No driver starts the season as number one.  Alonso deserves an important role for all he's done and for being the strongest driver during a race I have ever met.  We took Raikkonen because of his experience and popularity, he will get an equal chance to win for Ferrari.  it will be a very strong team"

On Vettel

" A great driver, a serious kid, when a driver wins as much as he has won, he deserves respect.  My compliments to him and Red Bull, but more to him."

"Will he land at Ferrari in the future?  the ways of the Lord are infinite.... we'll see.    For now our drivers are not the issue, we need to build them a better car and we hope that the new regulations will give us a chance to compete in areas where we are traditionally strong like, for example, engines"

On Alonso's Tweeting

We are going to not allow it,  he can tweet all he wants, but not about team matters because things can be misconstrued and built up into issues that can damage the harmony of the team"

On The Future of the Sport

"We need fairness and openness, we need clear rules that are enforced fairly but also that on track penalties are handed out with more common sense, especially in cases where no advantage was gained.  I expect Todt to work on renovating and improving the FIA in his second term."

On Ecclestone suggesting Christian Horner as his successor

"Ecclestone, as years pass  enjoys making jokes more and more.  I'm glad to see he's still having fun"

Interlagos was the end of the road.

The 2013 Formula One Championship ended at Interlagos and the final race of the season put a period at the end on many stories in the series.

It was, of course, the end of the road for the 2.4 liter normally aspirated V8.  Renault has put it's stamp all over the era, winning the last race and more than half of all races in the past eight seasons but there's more to say goodbye to before drawing some conclusions about this controversial yet boring year.

The end of the road, in F1 at least, for Mark Webber.  You must read Webber's comments on  Peter Windsor's  blog,   rather priceless I thought.   Here's a preview:

 On Helmut Marko

I still don’t really know his role in the team, so….yeah…. He was very critical of me from Day One but in the end he’s obviously brought Seb through and done a great job with that. He’s probably disappointed that F1 teams have to have two cars. But they do.

Mark bows out of a bad situation in the best possible way and with class,  well done.  Funny how now everyone loves him at Red Bull.

End of the Ferrari road for Felipe Massa.     The penalty in the race was harsh, but, given drivers were warned rather specifically before the race, inevitable.   What remains to be seen is how many others did the same exact thing.     Massa goes out of Ferrari with a silly mistake costing the team second place from Mercedes not to mention millions of dollars.

The end of Brazil as the final race of the season, next year the season ends in AbuDhabi.    A shame really because Interlagos has shown once again that despite being constantly badmouthed for it's lackluster VIP accommodations , it is just a magical track, far better than any modern bazillion dollar Tilkedrome.  Too bad the rain never came on Sunday.

The 2013 championship, despite Vettel's records will always have an asterisk  beside it,  The changing of the tires in the middle of the season, spoiled it and was profoundly unfair to teams that had designed their car to work with what was, after all supposed to be a tire with a certain engineered limit to it.  Red Bull and Mercedes bullied the series into giving them a tire that worked for the car  they designed.   Magically after their respective tests, with current cars, their performance improved.

Be that as it may, Vettel did an amazing job taking advantage of his advantage,  I just don't think routinely winning by 30 seconds over the likes of an Alonso and Hamilton is driver alone.
Hopefully the new formula will mark the end of the road for Red Bull's domination.  It's not a team easy to like, what with Marko and Multi 21 and braking the spending cap agreements and Newey telling the press the only reason Lotus and Ferrari won at all this year was because of luck.   Great image management but underneath it, they can make Mclaren feel warm and fuzzy.  No wonder people boo'd and RB embarked on that massive PR campaign to "humanize" Vettel in the final races (which most of the press bought hook line and sinker).

In the bigger picture, Formula One needs to take a long hard look at itself:  diving in the "eco" rabbit hole and  spending so much money even top teams struggle to survive,  forcing them to take on lousy pay drivers and leaving clear talent sidelined, is a dead end for what is supposed to be the pinnacle of the sport.

You know something's not right if racers like Hamilton and Alonso have to resign themselves to being tire managers.  Next year, potentially they will have to be fuel managers as well.    F1 had always thrown tough technical challenges to teams but nobody really cares to see engineers compete at who's the cleverest, it's a side interest but nothing if the main attraction is missing.

More vortices...

In case you doubted you are witnessing the sculpting of air, check out the curlicue vortex created off the RB9's front wing as it twists around the sides of the car.

Interesting how it appears to "turn on" and off like a switch. as soon as Webber reaches a certain speed or hits the brakes. That may be to do with the conditions needed to make the vapor visible, perhaps aero guys out there can shed some light.

Vortices

During practice for the US Grand Prix in Austin, the Texas air was humid enough to condense as it was compressed by all those sophisticated aero devices.   Check out the air swirling out of the sides of Alonso's F138.

The 2013 US Grand Prix went precisely as you thought it would.

Steve Etherington/LAT Photographic. AGPCF1/Flickr

Vettel took off from turn one, Webber got a bad start, Alonso struggled but by the end of the race pulled himself up a bit, Lewis was not happy with the tires, Maldonado crashed.  Vettel won by a comfortable margin and did some donuts.  People cheered.

Yawn.

Glenn Dunbar/LAT Photographic.AGPCF1/Flikr

And while we have to give full marks to Circuit of the Americas as a venue (love that they have lots of open seating, not just bleachers), it was hard  not to be appalled by the lousy coverage from NBC.
 
As longtime US based F1 fans, we've come to expect a low bar as far as coverage but NBC, which just bought the rights and hyped the extended coverage through web sites all over the internet, failed spectacularly in Austin.

It was not just the endless commercials which seem to get inserted precisely at key moments when something actually does happen or the incessant, disconnected dribble from Mr Diffey. It was a huge technical fail when NBC completely missed the podium ceremony at the end of the race.    Stunning after they way they butchered the re-broadcast of qualifying where they casually went to commercial halfway into Q2 and rejoined as Vettel was getting out of the car after setting the pole lap.  Incredible.

You would think a US network renowned for their sports coverage would put the United States Grand Prix in the hands of a producer who understands the sport and would not, for example place the hosts somewhere OUTSIDE the track!  

Yes, F1 is hard to cover for a commercial network, races can be dull but every race has a flow and there are story lines that develop as it unfolds,  there has to be an understanding of strategy and the background of the sport beyond offering vomit inducing giant donuts to Sebastian.   This will be more crucial next year and one wonders if anyone at Speed in the past or NBC now has ever bothered to study Sky Sports coverage.    Americans love baseball, a sport all about strategy, I'm sure they can handle tire and fuel plays.

There's more to it than donuts and F1 really needs to have a subscription service model going forward.

Maldonado has accused Williams of sabotage.

Unhappy with the team and out the door next season with at least part of his Venezuelan government oil company sponsorship, Pastor Maldonado today got his ass handed to him by young teammate Valteri Bottas in qualifying

Asked about his poor performance, the Venezuelan has accused  Williams  of sabotaging his car.

"There is someone who's had fun playing with my tire pressures" Maldonado told Italy's RAI TV.

Now, it's a well known practice for every race driver to first blame the car for his or her's own failings but, as my good friend Andres said: Williams is hovering in 9th spot in the championship with just a single point scored this season, why would they bother to sabotage anything and jeopardize any chance of scoring?

What next, Maldonado blame a US government conspiracy agains Venezuela?

Ferrari paid Hulkenberg's salary to prevent him racing with Lotus

Hulkenberg got a call from his bank...

This is the revelation, or perhaps, the allegation made by Italy's BlogF1 about the reason why Nico Hulkenberg will not race for Lotus in Austin and Interlagos.

The article goes on to  describe how, up to very recently, Hulkenberg had not been paid by Sauber  invalidating his contract with the Swiss team, a situation which allowed him to not only talk with Lotus but got to Enstone for a session in that team's simulator.

Right in the middle of that simulator session, BlogF1 continues, his bank account balance was replenished.  Where did Sauber find the money?   Ferrari supposedly came to an arrangement with Monisha Kaltenborn's team.

Why would Maranello do that?  Of all drivers available to fill Kimi's vacant seat at Lotus, Hulkenberg is without a doubt the strongest and Ferrari is in a fight with Mercedes and Lotus for the second spot in the constructor championship and the additional revenues it would bring.

True, not true, certainly a strategic move if it was.  There is much strategy in F1.

Kimi Raikkonen will miss Austin and Brazil.

Kimi Raikkonen will miss the final races of 2013 (Photo: Andrew Ferraro/ Lotus F1)

Kimi Raikkonen will not race the final two Grand Prix of the season at Austin and Interlagos choosing instead to undergo surgery in order to remedy his recurring back problem, a result of a crash in 2001,  which flared up at the Singapore Grand Prix earlier this year.

Since the Abu Dhabi race, according to the Finnish paper Turun Sanomat which first broke the story,  Kimi's condition has worsened to the point where he cannot sleep without strong painkillers.

Raikkonen had just visited Maranello for a seat fitting for the 2014 car and no doubt this development was discussed with the team brass,  Ferrari must be relieved this can be taken care of now rather than later int he year, but there must be a question mark there.   Raikkonen will be operated in Austria.

So who will fill Raikkonen's seat for the final two races?   Will Lotus give their reserve driver, Davide Valsecchi a chance or will they try to make a deal with Saube perhaps, to have Hulkenberg drive?

Did Alonso really sustain a 28G hit at Yas Marina?

It was one of the key episodes of the Abu Dhabi GP, Fernando Alonso's Ferrari had to take to the curbs to avoid contact with Jean Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso as he tried to beat Massa back onto the track after a pit stop.

Luis Garcia Abad/Twitter

It looked like a pretty rough ride but Alonso went on to finish the race setting fastest laps in the process and avoiding a penalty after Vergne admitted he had not seen him ad had not given him room.  After the race Fernando was giving interviews and seemed fine which explains the surprise then pictures popped up of him being taken to a  hospital strapped to a gurney like a salame.

What happened?  F1 regulations state that a driver must be checked out at a hospital is a g-force sensor alarm, installed in every chassis is triggered.   The sensor is there to alert medical personnel of the severity of an accident and is triggered at 18G.   Well placed journalists like the BBC's Andrew Benson reported the sensor had measured a whopping 28G.

28 G is a heck of a hit,  for reference what happens when when a pickup truck slams into a solid wall at 30 mph.  The Ferrari tub and Alonso's butt are very strong but perhaps the real figure was much lower as suggested by Autosprint who say the sensor came loose and registered a much higher energy spike.    

Ferrari has had no comment either way.

Shocker: Vettel Wins in Abu Dhabi

there's little to say about the race, Vettel won by over 30 seconds and everyone will be reduced to thanking about him doing donuts again as if that will solve F1 problems.

At least he did not get fast lap, Alonso ended the race with the option tires and got thew purple number on his way to P5.

Few incidents,  Kimi Raikkonen starting last ran into a Caterham in the first corner and broke his car.
Sutil and Maldonado got in a scrap, Sutil went off and gained two spots.   Displaying customary consistency the FIA gave no penalty.    The same governing body that gave Grosjean a penalty in Spa will also decide if Alonso should be penalized for not crashing into Vergne's Toro Rosso who was pushing him off the track.

More Red Bull RB9 "Secrets" discovered.

Seems every week there's a new "Secret of Red Bull's performance" discovered.  

Last week it was the expanding tea tray theory from Gary Anderson.  In a nutshell, Newey had figured out how to use the heat from the titanium skid plate fasteners to somehow expand and lower the front "tea tray" and increase efficiency.    Intriguing, especially light of the heat camera pictures everyone saw where the center of the car is glowing as hot as tires.   If there is anything there, the FIA could not prove it,  they conducted a test where they applied heat to the parts and found not deflection.

Today we have Red Bull's "Passive Active Suspension". From Auto Motor und Sport  the theory is that the RB9 uses hydraulically linked suspension to control roll and optimize traction. With this system Red Bull is able to the perfect attitude for the rear wheels giving the RB9 better traction.
 
Now, FRIC (Front and Rear Interactive Control) suspension have been on the Mercedes for a couple of years and copied by many but, the German paper contends, Newey's team has developed the system to the point where they can emulate what active suspension was able to do using a completely passive system.

Newey himself when asked did not deny, limiting himself to a sibylline "It would be very difficult to achieve that"....  he did not say it could not be done.

The final "secret"  is more involved and I'll try to summarize the excellent piece by Cristiano Spotton.  In essence it has to do with rake, air skirts and the new Pirelli tire.    You all know how the RB9 uses an exaggerated raked stance compared to all other cars, low in the front, high in the rear.   This can only work if you can optimize flows very precisely.   What Red Bull have mastered is how to create thermal "skirts" using exhaust gasses to seal off the side of the diffuser.   Not something unheard of but, once again, executed better than anyone else.  A car with a raked stance like the RB9 will have its aerodynamic center of pressure move forward at slower speeds helping the car turn in  while the opposite happens at high speeds when more pressure on the rear makes the car more stable.

One crucial part of the puzzle has been the change in Pirelli tire construction.  The Kevlar belted tires are stiffer and therefore deform less making them especially suited to the Red Bull's critical setup.

A interesting point was raised about next year's regulations.  This whole "thermal skirts" business is going out the window as cars will all need to have one high central exhaust.   A blank slate in many ways and with that, hope that Red Bull's domination might not be so complete.

Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying: White Lines and Tea Trays.

Photo: Sahara Force India

The FIA made ominous pronouncements about penalizing drivers who go four off in qualifying. Many di and the FIA did nothing about it. Well done.

Not that they have not been busy checking things, Hulkenberg's Sauber and Raikkonen's Lotus both had their floor tested, Hulk passed, Kimi's tea tray moved more than allowed so he will start from the back.   A way for Lotus to save on contractual point bonuses?  No that would be crazy,  like ordering one of your drivers to crash intentionally....

Hamilton got hosed, literally. Rear suspension failure in Q3, means mechanics will have to fix it in parc ferme and hope they won't find any nasty surprises. For sure they will have to clean up all the fire extinguisher foam an over eager track marshall sprayed all over the car when he saw smoke coming from the brakes.

All this might make Ferrari's week end less miserable than it has been so far. In front of that gargantuan Ferrariworld exhibition center, to have a "no budget" Sauber kick your but with the same engine is just sad.

Speaking of sad, I don't think anyone was sad to see Webber take pole from an clearly bummed out Vettel. Unfortunately, Helmut Marko will insist on personally setting Webber's clutch tonight.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car               Time       Gap
 1.  Mark Webber          Red Bull-Renault       1m39.957s
 2.  Sebastian Vettel     Red Bull-Renault       1m40.075s  +0.118s
 3.  Nico Rosberg         Mercedes               1m40.419s  +0.462s
 4.  Lewis Hamilton       Mercedes               1m40.501s  +0.544s
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus-Renault          1m40.542s  +0.585s
 6.  Nico Hulkenberg      Sauber-Ferrari         1m40.576s  +0.619s
 7.  Romain Grosjean      Lotus-Renault          1m40.997s  +1.040s
 8.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari                1m41.015s  +1.058s
 9.  Sergio Perez         McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.068s  +1.111s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.111s  +1.154s
Q2 cut-off time: 1m40.989s                                    Gap **
11.  Fernando Alonso      Ferrari                1m41.093s  +0.620s
12.  Paul di Resta        Force India-Mercedes   1m41.133s  +0.660s
13.  Jenson Button        McLaren-Mercedes       1m41.200s  +0.727s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m41.279s  +0.806s
15.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams-Renault       1m41.395s  +0.922s
16.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Renault       1m41.447s  +0.974s
Q1 cut-off time: 1m41.884s                                    Gap *
17.  Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber-Ferrari         1m41.999s  +1.306s
18.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes   1m42.051s  +1.358s
19.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault       1m43.252s  +2.559s
20.  Jules Bianchi        Marussia-Cosworth      1m43.398s  +2.705s
21.  Charles Pic          Caterham-Renault       1m43.528s  +2.835s
22.  Max Chilton          Marussia-Cosworth      1m44.198s  +3.505s

107% time: 1m47.741s
* Gap to quickest in Q1
** Gap to quickest in Q2

Lotus is passive/aggressive with Kimi

Lotus still butthurt by Kimi Rakkonen's departure.

We all remember the whiny twitter posts from Lotus after Raikkonen announced he had enough of driving for free and would  be off to the land of tortellini and Lambrusco.

After statements proclaiming Gosjean as team leader, we figured things were tense at Lotus but not quite this bad.



The transcript in case you haven't figured it out:

Alan Permane: "Kimi, Get out of the fucking way!"
Kimi Räikkönen: ''Don't shout there fucker! I get out of the way when I have a chance, but not during fast corner''

The message was sent towards the end of the race as Grosjean was catching Raikkonen who was dealing with played out rubber.

Lotus apologized, possibly to to avoid a fine,  and put a cute polar bear picture on their Facebook page...

“With hindsight, this radio message could have been sent in a less emotional way. There was a lot of tension, a lot of potential technical problems, and some of the words that flew around were simply not appropriate.  Said Lotus team boss Eric Boullier  “I know that quite a few people were surprised and I can only apologize for that on behalf of the team. It won’t happen again.”

Passive aggressive again.
(via YouTube and WTF1)

Vettel ran donuts around the competition this year

Let's celebrate Seb today.

Say what you will but don't forget this is not some guy who came from privilege and had it all easy, He was a clear talent from his first test with BMW aged 18 and got where he is, at just 26, being his own manager.

Yes, he is in the best team but that's no accident.  Formula One is all about domination and this year Red Bull out designed,  out strategized out spent and outmaneuvered all other teams.

Nobody likes domination but domination does not mean it's not hard work.

So cheers Sebastian, Red Bull and Renault.  Well done!

2013 Japanese GP Executive Summary

Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

It could have been quite a different race.  For once it was not just Webber who had a bad start, both Red Bull got caught napping not only by  Grosjean who rocketed past Vettel on his left but Hamilton who had beaten the German off the line and looked set to slice on the inside of Webber.
But it all lasted maybe 200 meters.  Hamilton's right rear made contact with Vettel's front wing and was instantly punctured. Game over for Lewis,  no damage for Vettel.   It might have been a more interesting race with Red Bull having to manage from further down in the field.

Speed vs Traction: What does 3/4 of a second look like?

With Formula 1 is a game of tenths. In qualifying for the Japanese GP at Suzuka all the top ten drivers were in the same second.   Sometimes it's hard to visualize how that happens and what it actually means on track.

Samurai Spirit

#JAPGP - Keeping the Samurai spirit http://t.co/UDjxiMXCcL
— Scuderia Ferrari (@InsideFerrari) October 8, 2013

Dear @InsideFerrari : enough with this "samurai spirit", how about some samurai action? #F1
— Axis Of Oversteer (@AxisOfOversteer) October 8, 2013

Axis would like to congratulate Jeep...

... on its Formula One debut.

So How is Red Bull running traction control legally?

You might have noticed a number of articles here and there trying to rationalize Vettel's crushing advantage in Singapore.   The guy is quick but 2 seconds a lap quicker the everyone else, based on talent alone, nobody's buying that one.  The secret is in the car,  or rather the car and driver package.

One theory revolves around engine mapping.  As you know, F1 cars used to get huge downforce by "blowing" the diffuser on the off throttle,  having fuel mix combust in the headers rather than on top of the pistons and thus keeping the exhaust flow energized.   This was banned after 2011.

In 2012 it became clear that where you come up with a rule, designers will figure a way around it.  So Coanda effect exhausts and even more work on engine mapping  made engines honk much like when they were "blowing" , which of course, they cannot anymore.



That first car by in the clip, published by Autosprint, is Vettel in Singapore.  One thing is certain, his RB9 is the only car making that distinctive sound.  Webber's RB9, the fourth car in the clip, sounds "normal".
But is that really the secret, it's still pushing exhaust pressure on the off throttle?  I'd say no way Red Bull would try to get away with something that blatant.  What you are hearing are cylinders being shut off, something Mr Whiting gave a pass to Renault last year as long as it's no more than 4 at a time (Renault pleaded reliability).  Red Bull's software has been checked and re-checked by the FIA because other teams have raised the issue  so, if they are "blowing", they are doing it by "cheating" legally, so to speak.

The biggest advantage for the RB9 is slow corner traction, Singapore is the most extreme example of a point and squirt track. Montreal is also a point and squirt track and, if you remember, there was more than a few questions about traction control there as well,  along with the same honky engine sounds being heard at times.

Of course if the "buzz" were traction control, it would not happen mid corner but on corner exit,
so, how might a form of traction control, or perhaps, Torque Control work?    All manner of theories have been bouncing around online,  one has been given a big boost in credibility by an article in Racecar Engineering:  the use of KERS charging to modulate power.

KERS has a defined amount of power it can store and discharge but there is no obligation on when to charge it so, the theory goes that Red Bull has figured out a way to use the charging phase to modulate output torque on corner exit.  If this were controlled in response to wheelspin,  it would be traction control and illegal.  What Racecar Engineering is speculating is that it is controlled by sensors in the shocks: shock is compressed means more grip then you have full power, shock is extended then you might get less torque (because it's charging KERS) and less potential wheelspin.    In effect a form of traction control which seems to be legal by the letter of the rules.  Remember Webber's tire marks in Montreal?

You might imagine  a system like this would require extra sensors and controllers While the KERS system is separate from the auxiliary electrical system, it is also known that the RB9 places especially high demands on its alternators which led to failures in the past (as constructed, materials were not up to demands).   A connection?

There are of course a bunch of other theories out there about what Newey might have come up with, these are more in the "there was no moon landing" category but, for fun...

- there are electrical heating elements placed behind the diffuser "intake" holes which, using battery power, superheat the airflow providing the same effect as exhaust blowing.
-Red Bull is able to "package" the rear of the car so tightly because they are using a "Peltier effect" heat pump to cool the exhaust.

As I said, sci-fi, but fun.

What is going on is Red Bull have come up with something that works, but works perfectly because Vettel knows how to take full advantage of it.  The car is build around him, what he's good at and what he knows how to fully exploit.   Webber may very well have precisely the same car but he, for whatever reason, is not able to extract that same advantage consistently.

Optimizing the package and pushing the rules,  that's what F1 is all about, love it or hate it.