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SHANGHAI - Nico Rosberg's victory at the Chinese Grand Prix made it three different winners in three races so far this season - but not one of them has been the Red Bull of reigning champion Sebastian Vettel.
It is a dramatic decline in fortunes for a driver and a team which at the same stage last season had bagged two grand prix victories and three pole positions, as Vettel rampaged his way to a second world title on the spin.
Fast forward 12 months and it's a dramatically different picture.
Germany's Vettel, 24, said he was pleased to finish fifth in Shanghai on Sunday, after the indignity of starting a lowly 11th on the grid.
His frustrating weekend reached another low when he made a poor start to the race, falling to 15th, before slowly making his way through the unfamiliar territory of midfield.
"The first lap wasn't great, but with the strategy we managed to come back," said Vettel, who opted to use the old exhaust settings because he had not been happy with the set-up of the car for the first two races.
"I think the weekend was good for us," he insisted.
Christian Horner, Red Bull's team principal, was also putting a brave face on a result that leaves the team trailing rivals McLaren in the constructors' championship, while Vettel is languishing in fifth in the drivers' standings.
"Our race pace was pretty strong and we got amongst the McLarens," said Horner.
"Unfortunately, the front left tyre on Sebastian's car took a real hammering, possibly behind Kimi (Raikkonen), and he didn't have anything left tyre-wise by the end of the race.
"But nonetheless, having been 15th on the first lap, fifth is still a strong result."
 
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