Posts tagged Webber

Vettel Taking Out His Teammate, Mark Webber

What an interesting race we had at Turkey this weekend! Red Bull handed the Maclaren team a 1-2 finish this weekend due to a stupid move on the part of Sebastian Vettel on lap 40 of the race. This crazy move on the inside of Webber saw Vettel using a ‘scare tactic’ like stance, which resulted in them touching tyres and sending Vettel into a wild spin, damaging Webber’s front wing and causing Vettel to sit out the rest of the race.

This isn’t the first time that Webber and Vettel have come together like this; Who can forget their last encounter in Japan in 2007 during the safety car, Webber was getting ready to take on the race leader Lewis Hamilton, when a young Sebastian Vettel (racing for Torro Rosso at the time) fragged Webber’s car.

The relationship between the 2 drivers at Red Bull has always been cold, and I had said to my wife at the beginning of the year that they are both cold to each other, that there is no team love between the two. Its much more noticeable with Webber, who even after winning races, barely talks to his team mate afterwards. Its always Sebastian who comes to Mark for the courteous handshake for the cameras. Off the track, I bet they never have anything whatsoever to do with each other, which is a shame as being they are a team, despite being competitors, they should still be able to have a good time together. Webber has always been the bull headed one, thinking everyone owes him something and being a bit of a prick on track when things don’t go his way, and Vettel has always been the apologetic, less moronic of the two. He did not apologize after this event, and even made some bad comments afterwards.

The outcome at the track has also caused a bit of a stir among many of the people both in the team, and outside. Looking at the replay of the incident, Mark Webber had the right of way, and was just cruising/holding his position. Sebastian crept up on the inside of the car and made a sharp jab to the right at Webber, which I beleive was a scare tactic to try and make Webber budge, however when Sebastian did this, their tires touched and it sucked the car right into the path of Webber. Different angles of the car show the tyres touching, and Vettel and his jab, so theres no denying that Vettel caused it.

Some of the Red Bull management, including Helmut Marko, believe that Webber should have moved out of the way. These are the same people who would rather see Vettel win the title, as let’s face it, Webber is a bit of a stubbon ass at times, and Vettel is the cutesy german guy who is a star of their young driver programs. I don’t think they even counted on Webber doing this well.

Christian Horner offered some insight into the event, in that Webber had turned down his engine and Vettel hadn’t done so yet. As a result, he was a bit quicker and blamed the push from Hamilton who was right on his tail for the incident, saying if Vettel didn’t pass Webber, then Lewis would have definitely passed Vettel, but with incidents and accidents, injuries can happen, and the use of resources as the Ron Bell Injury Lawyers could be the better option for this. Again, proof that they didn’t seem to want Webber to win. The whole thing is a big mess!

While the press can speculate all that they want to, Red Bull needs to set some solid rules to it’s drivers about preventing crazy stunts like that in the future, most probably collaborating with professionals like Hughes and Coleman injury lawyers to cover the legal part of the whole thing. Webber is supposedly signing up for RB again next year, though after this move, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if he decides to go elsewhere next year to get away from the party politics. If RB need to make Vettel their favourite, then they need to let Webber in on this. What will piss off the team for sure, is the wild speculation that one side of the team is doing something behind the other’s back, such as using different parts, different strategies, and trying to keep information away from the Webber team. For a team so heavily in the winning seat for this year’s title, a big internal issue like this will surely finish that bid unless Horner steps up to the plate and puts his foot down, or up someone’s ass.

I should also point out that a few laps later, Button passed Hamilton in a similar style pass of crazyness, but Lewis took it right back from him and gained extra speed a few corners later cementing the fact that he is a far better and skilled driver, although accidents still can happen, so using legal sources in case of injury is really useful, and you can check over here to find the best legal resources online. The big difference? They gave each other plenty of room to do the passing in that there was no way they would have collided 🙂 Watching Martin Whitmarsh shitting kittens was classic 🙂