F1 News
Date:
24/March/2013
Mark Webber was left fuming after Red Bull team-mate and
reigning champion Sebastian Vettel ignored team orders and snatched victory in
the closing stages of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
Webber had moved ahead of pole sitter Vettel during the opening
round of pit stops, when drivers switched from intermediate to slick tyres on a
drying track.
Vettel then spent much of the race behind Webber, his
frustration clear when he radioed to say “Mark is too slow. Get him out of the
way”. Vettel was told to “be patient. Only half the race yet.”
Webber regained his pace after the next pit stop, while Vettel
briefly dropped to third, between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico
Rosberg.
The controversy occurred shortly after the fourth and final
pit stops, when Vettel used DRS to pull a close move alongside Webber into turn
one. The pair fought side-by-side through the following corners until the
German squeezed ahead.
The problem? Red Bull, which had struggled with acute tyre
wear in practice, had told its drivers to ‘hold position’ after the final pit
stops. A coded radio message had also been issued, all of which prompted Webber
to drop his guard.
Team Manager Christian Horner explained: “We let them race
up to the last pit stop. Then we told the drivers to maintain position and look
after the tyres. Sebastian took it into his own hands.”
Webber did his best to contain his anger during a tense
podium ceremony, but the sense of betrayal was clear.
“After the last stop the team told me the race was over,” he
said. “I want to race as well, but the team made a decision - look after the
tyres, turn the engine down and get the car to the end. Seb made his own
decisions today and will have protection and that’s the way it goes.”
Vettel, long perceived as enjoying favouritism at Red Bull, initially
appeared unaware of the uproar he had caused.
“If there is something to say then we need to talk internally,” he
commented during the podium ceremony.
But minutes later, perhaps after speaking to the team, Vettel
offered an apology.
“I think I did a big mistake today. We should have stayed in
the positions that we were. I didn’t ignore it on purpose but I messed up and
obviously took the lead. I can see now he’s upset, but I want to be honest at
least and stick to the truth and apologise. All I can say is that I didn’t do
it deliberately. “
Asked how he could claim it wasn’t deliberate, an
uncomfortable Vettel replied: “I’m the black sheep right now… The pass was
deliberate, obviously. But I didn’t mean to ignore the strategy or the call. I
made a mistake.
“If I had the chance to do it again, I would do it
differently but I can’t change it now. Maybe in the future there’s a situation
where I can, but I will try to explain that again to Mark and the whole team.”
Even Red Bull Advisor Dr Helmut Marko, a critic of Webber
whenever the team-mates have clashed in the past, blamed the young German.
“We told the drivers to stay in position because we were
worried about tyre wear. It got out of hand,” he said. “The team will have to a
word because we have to control the drivers. It is not like Mercedes where
there is a clear number one and number two…”
The last comment was a reference to the team orders also applied
by Mercedes, which saw new superstar signing Lewis Hamilton limp home to his
first rostrum for the team at the expense of Rosberg.
Rosberg repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to overtake
Hamilton in the closing stages, only to be denied permission by Team Principal
Ross Brawn, who explained that Hamilton had been asked to back off and save
fuel.
To Hamilton’s credit, he was quick to recognise the
sacrifice made by Rosberg and looked almost as uncomfortable as the Red Bull
drivers on the podium.
“If I’m honest, Nico should be standing here. Generally he
had better pace than me throughout the race. I was fuel-saving for a long time
and unable to keep the pace. I can’t say it’s the best feeling, but the team
did a great job and I’m proud to be up here for them.”
With Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso crashing out when his broken
front wing - caused by contact with the back of Vettel at the start - jammed
under the car, Vettel now leads the standings by nine points over Melbourne
winner Kimi Raikkonen.
Round three will be held at Shanghai, China on April 14,
before which Vettel and Red Bull will have a lot of bridge-building to do with
Webber.
“There were a lot of things going through my mind in the
last 15 laps of the grand prix, lots of different reasons, not just from today
but also from the past,” said Webber. “We’ll see what happens. We’ve got three
weeks before the next race.
“It’s very early days right now, it’s very raw, obviously,
and we need to work out how the team goes best forwards from here.”
