Sebastian Vettel has warned Red Bull that they need to come back stronger if they want to regain their air of invincibility in the Championship.
Red Bull were pushed off the top step of the podium at the British Grand Prix as Fernando Alonso and Ferrari hit top gear for the first time this campaign. Alonso, who was just +0.11s off Mark Webber's P1 qualifying time on Saturday, beat both Red Bulls fair and square - as Vettel put it after the race - to claim the team's maiden win of 2011.
Vettel still leads the Drivers' Championship by 80 points with 10 races to go, but he knows they need to hit back if they want keep their rivals at an arm's length.
"It was a tough race and Ferrari was very quick, Fernando in particular, and they beat us," he told the Red Bull website. "We need to accept it, and to understand when you get beaten you have to accept it.
"It was a lesson to learn, and it is up to us now to refocus and make sure that we come back with stronger performance for the next couple of races. It is a very important time now for the Championship.
"We are in a good position still, but we need to keep working on ourselves because the otherwise the others come too close for our liking."
Team boss Christian Horner feels they were pretty good on intermediate tyres, but when they swapped to softs, Ferrari gained the upper hand.
"It was a race of two halves," he said. "On inters we seemed to be very strong and through the middle phase of the grand prix we seemed to be okay.
"But then the balance seemed to shift during the second half of the race. Potentially, as the fuel loads got lighter or as the circuit rubbered in, Ferrari's pace picked up and Fernando's pace was obviously very strong.
"As we see with these tyres there is obviously a sweet spot, but we were running in a [blown diffuser] configuration this weekend that we have not previously been in."
