Mark Webber sparks controversy again at Red Bull
Heading into the final two races of the season and trailing by 11 points, now is not the best time for Mark Webber to stir things up at Red Bull.
Throughout the season, Red Bulls’ drivers have been at each other’s throats. In Turkey, Sebastian Vettel was preparing to overtake his teammate, but they collided, and at the British Grand Prix, Webber felt the team were favouring Vettel when they removed a newly-developed front wing from his car and gave it to the young German when he broke his.
This row rumbled for the whole of that race weekend in July, and when Webber won the race, he reacted to team principal Christian Horner’s radio message of “well done, you’ve won the British Grand Prix, you can smile now,” by saying “not bad for a No.2 driver.”
Webber’s outburst forced Red Bull to release a statement to say that the team was behind both drivers, and they held “clear the air talks” to put an end to this. Now, ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend, Webber has reignited the team bias row by saying Red Bull are “emotionally behind” Vettel.
When speaking to the media last night, Webber’s body language was not good, and when he was asked whether the team was fully behind him, he said: “Technically everything’s been very, very good.
“It’s obvious isn’t it? When young new chargers come onto the block, that’s the way it is, which is absolutely fine because I’ve had a great opportunity with a great car to go and do some great things this year and I’ve done that. I’ve got favourites in life. That’s how it is. It’s human nature,” Webber said.
Webber feels Red Bull always wanted Vettel to be the challenger for the title, and when asked about this, he said: “I think I wasn't supposed to be in the hunt at all, so it's been maybe quite inconvenient, but I've enjoyed every minute of it.”
Vettel is 25 points off championship leader Fernando Alonso, and there has been plenty of talk about whether Vettel should play a supporting role to Webber. When the Australian was asked whether he would support Vettel if the situation was flipped, he took his time to answer, sighed, and then said: “It's a tough question and a tough situation to know how you would do things.
“There's a lot of really good people at this team and there's no getting away from the fact we would love to win some championships this year. We're at different parts of our career as well, so it's not as easy as some might imagine. I'd need to think a lot further about that.
“For different reasons here and there, Seb's never led the championship this year and I have. Whatever the best way we go about trying to win the championship, we'll see on the Monday after Abu Dhabi [final race] if it was the right way,” said Webber, with the comments showing the fractious relationship he has with Vettel.
Horner was quick to respond to Webber’s comments, having done so in July as well. “It's not been inconvenient at all,” he told reporters. “He's had tremendous support from the whole team, not just this year, but in all the years he's been with Red Bull.
“He's probably referring to the support of Helmut [Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport correspondent] to Sebastian, but that doesn't influence the way the team operates or the way it supports its drivers. We've given both drivers a great car and we've given Mark the tools to get the job done,” Horner added.
After the interviews, Webber and Horner were seen behind the Red Bull motor-home deep in conversation, with Horner very possibly telling Webber to get on with the task in hand.
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