Christian Horner defends Mark Webber
Formula one 2010 season has been by far the most exciting one in recent history, as the title race has been closer than ever before. Apart from the on track activities, there have been plenty of controversies throughout the season
off the tracks.
The latest one came after the Korean Grand Prix; Gerhard Berger, a former F1 driver after the race said that Red Bull driver Mark Webber tried to knock out a rival during the race.
Mark Webber, who was leading the driver standings before the Korean race, was unable to end the race and crashed out on 19th
lap. The Aussie spun his car on the wet track and slammed his car in the wall.
As Webber’s car drifted across the track, he also knocked out Nico Rosberg who was unable to get out of the way and was also eliminated from the race. After the race Beger made a strange remark while talking to an Austrian news
channel. He said that Webber would have preferred to crash into one of the title contenders like Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton rather than Nico Rosberg.
Berger, who managed to win 10 races in his F1 career, said that Mark Webber could have avoided the contact with Rosberg by applying brakes earlier.
Christian Horner, the team principal at Red Bull has understandably not taken the comments made by Berger lightly. Mark Webber did come out and even apologized to Rosberg after the race.
Horner, while talking to a British newspaper, said that at times people like Berger tend to make comments without getting their facts right. Horner added that even though there is no need to clarify his comments, but Webber did
not intend to take out anyone in the race. He added that anyone who believes otherwise needs to really think about saying something like that.
Horner said Webber clearly did not have control of his car and was not able to stop it before he crashed into Rosberg.
"After Mark's impact with the wall, it was clear on the TV and from the data that his car was badly damaged, However, the natural and immediate instinct of any competitive driver is not to give up and to keep going”.
"In the atrocious conditions, Mark made the snap decision to continue as every driver would in that situation, It's absurd to suggest that Mark would ever deliberately take out another driver”.
Horner went on to say that Mark Webber is an honest man, and it was evident from his comments after the race. Webber instantly took blame for the incident and also apologised to Rosberg.
Mark Webber was in the championship lead before the Korean Grand Prix, but after crashing out he trails Fernando Alonso by 11 points at the top. There are 2 more races to go in the season, and Christian Horner insisted that it
is still anyone’s title to take.
Red Bull boss said that sometimes things happen in races that are beyond anyone’s control. He added that his team did not expect the weather to be that bad in Korea, and obviously their cars were not totally equipped to deal with
the wet tracks.
While commenting on the breakdown of Sebastian Vettel’s car, Horner said that probably Sebastian pushed it a bit too much in the end. He admitted that reliability has been an issue with his team this season, but added that still
considering all that has gone wrong this year for them, it will be great if Webber or Vettel manage to win the title in Abu Dhabi.
Tags: