Nick Heidfeld is sure Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel will not walk away with the 2011 world championship.<\/p>\n
The reigning champions enjoyed a dominant start to the season but German Heidfeld, who drives for Renault, has been particularly impressed with the improvements of the McLaren team.<\/p>\n
“After the first races some people said it was going to be a walkover for Sebastian and Red Bull,” he said in an interview with German broadcaster RTL.<\/p>\n
“But if you look back on the past few years, something like that is really very rare.\u00a0 Particularly McLaren in recent years have often started a bit behind and then moved forward quite rapidly,” added Heidfeld.<\/p>\n
Indeed, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton won with a superior tyre strategy in China three weeks ago, although insiders expect Red Bull to shine this weekend in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Heidfeld said of McLaren: “If they have the development pace they’ve had in previous years, they will be a very serious challenger.\u00a0 And I hope that some other teams and us (Renault) as well can also be at the very front.”<\/p>\n
In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, McLaren’s chief engineer Phil Prew admitted the gap separating Red Bull’s RB7 from the MP4-26 is up to five tenths per lap.<\/p>\n
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