Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber turn up the heat
Mark Webber may well end the season as the Formula One world champion, but he was probably never a loss to the diplomatic corps.
After a weekend when his Red Bull teammate had his wings clipped, quite literally, and the Australian had delivered a truly fired-up performance to win the British Grand Prix at Silverstone he spoke to his mechanics on the team radio.
Time for a bit of bridge building perhaps? Maybe not. “Not a bad job for a No.2 driver,” Webber said, with tongue so far in cheek it almost required medical extraction.
The battle between the two Red Bull drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Webber is building up to be a bitter rivalry in Formula One, reminiscent of the one between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren.
In Turkey we saw what can happen when two of your drivers who don’t get along clash with each other on the track. Webber and Vettel’s collision threw away the race win and a handful of points, but it was also the start of a war within Red Bull.
Red Bull have rather shot themselves in the foot in the manner that they are managing their drivers. On Saturday, Vettel damaged his newly-designed front wing in practice, which had improved the car by a 10th of a second. He was then handed the front wing from Webber’s car, which led to suggestions favouritism amongst the Red Bull ranks.
Reports suggest the wing was for “championship positions and final practice pace.” Funnily enough, Vettel took pole position by a 10th ahead of Webber.
Webber was the far side of unhappy, and his body language after qualifying summed up his frustrations at supposedly playing second fiddle at the team. “I think the team is happy with the result today [Saturday],” he said.
The 33-year-old signed a new contract with Red Bull in July that will keep him with the team for 2011, and he put petrol on the fire by saying he wouldn’t have signed an extension if he thought Vettel would get preferential treatment.
Team principal Christian Horner denied there was any favouritism within the team. “Unfortunately we found ourselves in a situation with only one front wing of a certain specification which was slightly different in characteristics. Both drivers tried it yesterday [in Friday practice]and one had a better preference for it over the other. And it was tried by both again this morning [on Saturday].”
Webber did his talking on the new layout of Silverstone yesterday to take his third win of the season, to which he described it as “an Australian response, a little upper cut. You do your talking on the track.”
The win has put him right back into the championship hunt when he claimed the lead on the run to the first corner as he slammed the door firmly in his teammate’s face. Vettel lost the lead from pole position, suffered a puncture on the first lap after his right-rear tyre clipped Lewis Hamilton’s front wing, and his chance of the race win disappeared as quickly as the rubber on his tyre. He had to crawl back to the pits and found himself almost a lap down on Webber, but thanks to a safety car and some brave overtaking, he salvaged seventh position Webber’s message was quite clear to everyone over the radio yesterday, including his teammate. His comments after the race were all about the situation on whether he is the No.2 at the team and the issue with the front wing.
“Ah, yesterday [qualifying] I wasn’t happy, clearly. I’m sure we’ll have some pretty decent chats tomorrow. Today went well for me and, yeah, that’s it, mate. But some of the drivers offered me some front wings from their cars on the [drivers’] parade lap but I said I would stick with what I’ve got. Seb didn’t but some of the other guys tried to offer me a front wing,” he said.
Webber was asked whether after the race he would go for a celebratory drink with Vettel, to which he replied “Definitely not.
“I'd say it's a healthy rivalry. I suppose we can relate it to a State of Origin situation. Once you cross that line it's all about what you've got to go and do. After the match you might catch up a bit. It's as good as it can be in the situation.
“There have been a lot of teammates over the years at this level who don't see eye to eye and that comes with the territory. But if Seb was in the ocean and he was struggling, he was drowning, I would be out here having a crack at saving him. It's not that you actually hate each other's guts. It's just that he's one of your rivals, you want to beat him and there's nothing wrong with that,” he added.
In the post-race interviews, Vettel was told about Webber’s comments over the team radio. “I have my own opinion about that matter that I rather prefer to keep to myself and to focus on myself. I have made my experiences and, sometimes good or bad, you get to know people a little bit better and see their true faces. I think I have learned my lesson.”
Horner will hold talks with Webber today over the situation Red Bull finds itself in after the season started so smoothly.
“Of course, we will talk about it, and if the air needs to be cleared it will be cleared. Mark has been with us when we were battling for 10th and 11th places. He knows how hard the team has worked as a group to get ourselves into a position to be running at the front and winning grands prix. I don't think either driver needs motivation, but when you have two drivers competing for the world championship, there can be tension between the two of them. We don't hide that fact,” said Horner.
After Turkey, Horner said that neither driver was being favoured. Now he has had to do it again. “We do not have a No. 1 and No.2 driver here. The only time we would is if at the end of the championship one driver, based on the points, could not realistically compete for the title. Both Mark and Seb are team drivers. By the way we have just won the f****** British Grand Prix,” he said.
Horner may have given Vettel the Red Bull with wings, but it was Webber who flew.
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