After the 4 months silence, the F1 circus has returned to burning land, Bahrain. Now is the time to start the 2010 season. The air gets almost 40 degrees and the sun burns the desert like a hell, but the heat of excitement of the Formula One fans is also getting higher all over the world.
“The most eyecatching thing here is the huge amount of cameras,” Sebastian laughed. “Everyone, no matter how funny they look or which race suit they wear, immediately gets mobbed. The reason they’re here? One name: Michael Schumacher. A lot of people have come to Bahrain just to see his comeback. Does it bother me? Not at all. It actually has the opposite effect, and the worldwide interest it’s created is just amazing for our sport.”
“The fact that he is my next-door neighbour in the pitlane won’t change anything, either. Sure, I’ll say ‘hi’ and ‘goodbye’ a few times, but I am only focusing on myself and my team. Everyone has his own things to do, especially at the beginning of the season.”
Revenge to the last year’s tears. That is the main thing of Sebastian for this 2010 season. Joining of Michael Schumacher to the grid, we will see 4 World Champions’ battle on the track. It means that Sebastian is going to fight against them and to try to beat them. There is only one target in his mind.
“Obviously I have a target in my life, the target to be a World Champion.” he said. “I'm sure I'd learned a lot over the last year. I know that I will be battling four world champions in the fight for the title this season, but I don’t really care what they do. As you guys know, I have my own goal: I want to be exactly where I got to last year, hoping that the final press conference will be with five world champions.”
The very first day of practice wasn’t ideal. Mechanical failure limited his mileage and the car’s behavior was not perfect. Sebastian’s face was clouded which was rather unusual for him but at the same time it showed that his expectation for this season is high and serious.
Thanks to the team members’ long night, his RB6 took back its speed. He showed unexpected speed in the qualifying session and their effort deserved to get the pole position.
“A big surprise!” he said. “Yesterday I have to admit we were not very happy, especially myself. I won't tell you what, but nothing special, small things, but they had a big effect in the end.”
Sunday was the hottest day during this weekend. The Red Bull car with number 5 led the others from the start and controlled the race completely. But it couldn’t last more than two-thirds of the whole distance. “Loss of power, loss of power!” Radio showed Sebastian’s painful crying out. A failure on a part of engine threw his speed away and his promised victory vanished into Bahraini sands.
“At some stage, I think about 15 to 20 laps from the end, you could see my lap times were getting slower. It seems something mechanical broke, luckily we could continue and finished fourth. We should have won today, but I didn't miss champagne because there wasn't any... it's important to finish, that's the secret of the season.”
We couldn’t see what we expected in Bahrain, but it was also true we could find that Sebastian and Red Bull have a huge potential to fight for the top this year too. It’s just a beginning of the challenge for the ultimate target of Sebastian.
