Hamilton was far from suggesting traction control was at the heart of Vettel’s
cruise under the lights, instead merely highlighting just the speed of the
current Red Bull.
For his part, Horner could only smile at suggestions his team were up to no
good as he said: “The electronic controls inside the cars are so tightly
governed.
“The setting in both cars were absolutely identical, and they fully comply
with the FIA rules.
“So any suggestion of traction control is purely either mischievous on behalf
of the others, or wishful thinking.
“You would be fairly stupid to introduce traction control on to a car which is
governed on a single ECU that is through a tender of the FIA and that is
scrupulously checked by the FIA.
“I cannot image any team in the pit lane would do it.
“The problem is Sebastian’s performance was so dominant in Singapore it will
inevitably raise questions as to how it was possible.
“Other teams will be looking inwardly, and the easiest conclusion to come to
is ‘They (Red Bull) must be cheating’, but these things are so tightly
controlled it is impossible.
“The facts are he (Vettel) drove an incredible race in Singapore, he had
incredible pace. He maximised the most out of the car, and was a driver at
absolute peak form.
“Is it a distraction? No. Will we lose any sleep over it? Absolutely not.”
Vettel, however, has made it clear Red Bull had a trick up its sleeve in
Singapore, and now it is for their rivals to discover what.
“We were playing around quite a lot with it in practice, but the first time it
worked was in the race,” said Vettel.
“I was quite confident other people would never figure out how we did it.
“We are pretty proud of the system we have because other people will never
figure out how we’ve done it.”
(Edited by Giles Mole)