Mark Webber of Australia and Red Bull Racing drives at the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on May 28, 2010, in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images.
Mark Webber’s world championship hopes were dealt a serious blow by his own team in Istanbul as Red Bull became Red Turkeys.
Worse still, senior members of his team have placed the blame squarely on Webber, despite pundits, fans, and just about anyone who watched the incident finding fault with Vettel, or at least putting the blame on each driver.
Adrian Musolino’s article sums up the incident and the ensuing dogfight that will emerge. But the rage from fans has shown a high level of support for Webber.
A poll by Autosport found 80% blamed Vettel with the other 20% found to be Sebastian Vettel’s family members who split the blame between both and Webber.
Now being serious for a moment, Webber wasn’t totally innocent – he doesn’t leave much for Vettel who had managed to get in front on the inside line. But Vettel was careless/impetuous/foolish enough to believe that Mark could disappear or just yield, like he had in Malaysia, and promptly ran into him.
Since Malaysia, where Vettel smoked Webber into the first corner of the race, the tide has turned. Webber has won two races, including prestigious Monaco with a clear margin, asserting himself over Vettel who had no response. Interestingly, this has turned the national past-time of ‘Webber bashing’ to praising Webber, and to now being irate enough to load the Red Bull Racing community webpage with comments telling Vettel exactly where to go.
Inflaming the situation beyond it’s already heated acrimony was paddock talk heaping rumours over whether or not Webber faces racing a golden boy or favourite son. Red Bull isn’t overly popular within the paddock from reports that suggest that the team haven’t won friends from their perceived arrogance, especially during the ride height accusations made earlier in the season.
It is a chance for the media to stick the boot in by looking for Austrian owned-German driver connections and golden child implications. Vettel has also peeved fans and pundits with his reaction to the incident, twirling his fingers as if to say: “Everyone is crazy but me”. Ahem.
A senior member of the Red Bull team is Austrian Dr Helmut Marko – who overseas the young driver programme from which Vettel is a graduate. His comments after the race to official site Formula1.com has turned Webber fans from cheesed off to apoplectic.
Marko clearly faulted Webber, and felt that Webber should have given up the race win for his faster teammate. You can imagine that Webber will see those comments and feel terribly isolated when laying fault on him goes against common opinion.
Red Bull will try and smooth this over and deny favouritism. But it might be like paper over cracks if war erupts between two drivers who have that killer instinct so desired by a team. The race in Turkey will be viewed by many as a tipping point in the season.
Where it goes from here will be fascinating.
st penguin
Guest
Now you mention it, it sounds a bit like that year when Schumi broke his leg (99?). All of a sudden, Irvine was their no.1 and they didn't look like they particularly wanted him to win the championship. Only in F1!
dale
Guest
It's obvius who red bull would prefer to win championship based on how they are viewing the incident. I'm an aussie and a Mark Webber fan but I was watching formula 1 before he was there and I'm a true racing fan and to just expect a teamate or another competitor to just move because you are there is utter arrogance and ignorance. My suggestion to Mark is make it as hard as possible for Vettel and keep driving the way you are and eventually the team will have to respond to you when you are showing more skill, maturity and respect for your fellow drivers. All the best for the remainder of the season. Perhaps in your next post race interview dont hold back and tell it how it is in this political sport. Cheers Dale Houlihan.
Wylie
Guest
I'm a Kiwi and if you think Webber is a hopeless driver you obviously know sweet FA about F1. Go and crawl back into whatever hovel you emerged from.
Ken
Guest
I think your 'anti-Australian' viewpoint is more strongly biased than anyone here's Australian viewpoint. I also don't think anyone here suggested that Marko et al didn't understand what happened - only that their stated support for Vettel had nothing to do with the incident itself. If you're not familiar with it you may not understand that F1 is 50% politics, 50% big business with the rest being pure sport!
Tristan Rayner
Editor
John, I think in the immediate points scale Webber is, as the Europeans would say, 'for sure' better off. However, the incident threatens the larger season beyond this point. Nice sledging of that certain PM too :) Not sure when Red Bull would be prepared to put their efforts behind one driver only - I think Mark would need a huge lead over Seb. Hi Mark, and thanks for the comments. It was certainly a very enjoyable race to watch. Further to your comment, there was a really interesting story from James Allen after Mark's first win in Germany last year. Allen indicated that Red Bull were worried more about what happened to Vettel rather than enjoying Webber's win. Perhaps Webber was meant to be No 2 and the driver that helps with setup while not being able to match their preferred No 1. We shall see! George, thanks mate, I enjoyed that. Dan, you can see some reasons why RBR would be keen for Vettel to achieve - he's worth a fortune to them like Schumacher was for Ferrari if he can become a World Champ a few times over. And you're right - suddenly Webber has gone from being comfortable and happy in RB to having the world turned on it's head and Ferrari are fans of older drivers. This is good stuff!
Dan
Guest
this has got Alonso V Hamilton @ McLaren written all over it, and look what happened there... you choose a two-time (back to back no less) world champion over a rookie? from everything you hear, mark is the kinda guy who puts the hard yards in when things aren't going well for a team, he does a lot of extra work in the development of a car and is well liked by other drivers and pit lane staff (he and alonso are the drivers' "union" reps if you like)... Now RBR have got a bit of success, maybe they think they don't need him anymore, and they are always going to look after the (lets face it, like hamilton Vettel is massively talented) boy wonder they've been developing since birth... there are a lot of rumors about MW heading to ferrari next year, and they won't go away... sure he'll be number 2 behind alonso, but ferrari have slipped down the preformance ladder a wee bit and could use a bloke who will do the hard yards to develop the car... plus the prestige of driving for ferrari will always be the highest in F1, history counts for a lot...
George
Guest
WOW a bunch of Australians feel webber was hard done by... Who could've known. I wouldn't mind him soo much if he wasn't such a hopeless driver. No offence 'Tristan Rayner' i think the senior people at Red Bull would know a bit more than you and the 'Australian' pundits. I'm sure they've got all the ausio, team instructions etc.. to make a proper judgement call. But lets all praise Webber as he is the only Australian. He has a history of cutting people off, causing accidents and showing no respect in the sport, but its cool as he's the Great Austrlaian hope
John
Guest
Well if they do continue to favor Vettel the end result will almost certainly be that neither of them win. If Webber beats Vettel in Canada the team will have no choice but to accept him as their No 1 title hope.
Mark Young
Guest
Hi Tristan. This really is a tipping point for Red Bull. You can tell from the reactions, especially of Seb and Marko that the team always expected Vettel to be the star with Webber running a competent rearguard action, ala Barichello and Schumacher circa Ferrari early 2000s. I suspect that we may see Webber totally screwed over in this... But we shall see. Also, there was a fair bit of tension between Lewis and Jenson as well, it is reasonable to assume that he did not expect to see Button steaming past his outside a few laps later (great wheel to wheel stuff wasn't it!) Cheers for another well written article mate!
John
Guest
I disagree that it is a blow to Webbers championship hopes - his biggest rival has lost a potential 18-25 points! Vettel really needs to grow up - his sense of entitlement, tantrums, lack of accountability and constant blaming of everyone else when anything goes wrong remind me so much of a certain PM.