I wasn’t overly surprised to hear Mark Webber made the decision to leave his formula one cockpit next year to drive sports cars for Porsche in next years FIA World Endurance Championship.
After seven loyal years with the Red Bull racing team, the time was right for Webber to move on to his next challenge.
It’s become obvious there is a noticeable bias towards Webber’s Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel and it’s possible Mark thinks the same way.
This bias was made clear by the lack of reprimand the German received in March, when he blatantly ignored team orders at the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix.
Vettel overtook his teammatefor being ‘too slow’, disobeying clear directions from pit lane to maintain the status quo they had at the front of the race with Webber in the lead.
It wasn’t a case that there were cars ahead of Webber to be caught and more championship points to be won.
The race was safe and Webber was on his way to his 10th Grand Prix win, with the full compliment of constructor’s points also in the bag.
The blatant lack of respect shown by the German toward his teammate in Kuala Lumpur was the final straw in a long-running spat between the pair.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner has tried for years to pour cold water on what is now a very public feud. I don’t know who he is kidding.
The two teammates have said, in not so many words, they don’t like each other. And I don’t know how much Webber is to blame for that, if at all.
What appeared to me like healthy competition in 2010, when Webber won five races and was having his best season in Formula One, was seemingly looked upon with resent by Vettel.
Once again Horner came to his star attraction’s rescue, saying there was no problem.
In more recent times, the defence has continued to be staunch. Can you blame him? He is the three time defending world champion after all. A little bit more honesty is all Webber and the Australian public wanted.
Beauty of an argument is that there are two sides to every story and on the other side of the coin, Red Bull is more than just a Formula One racing team.
They are a multi-million dollar business with sponsors to keep happy and salaries to pay.
Unfortunately in this day and age loyalty doesn’t radiate as brightly as world championships. Maybe it shouldn’t; maybe results and success is all top level sport should be about these days.
Red Bull and Horner have backed Webber into a corner and instead of cowering in it, he’s walked straight past them with his head held high.
Interestingly, in an interview just before the British Grand Prix on Sunday, where Webber fought from an early setback to finish second, he said it was too good an offer to pass up and he had a limited amount of time to take it.
He went on to say if he didn’t grab the opportunity then next year he might have been improving his surfing and not a happy person.
Reading between the lines, and seeing as he is on rolling one year deals at present, he may well have jumped before he was pushed.
Ruby rose
Guest
You're brilliant Stevche :)
Wil
Guest
His best years were wasted at Williams. Two differences between Webber and Vettel.. Vettel is smaller and lighter which has given him a huge advantage in where the balast can be placed in the car (huge as in, enough for maybe .1 a lap - enough to claim pole) this was especially a big impact in the year they brought in KERS but forgot to allow the minimum car weight to be higher to compensate which really punished heavier drivers (I think the year Vettel won his first championship?). Webber also never came to grips with the new qualifying format after being the master of the single lap qualifying. To be fair, Webber also was never good at "new" tracks. It seems to take him a while to get to terms with them, maybe you can't teach old dogs new tricks. And the injuries he sustained in what should have been a championship year for him were really bad luck. Unlucky indeed, but a worthy and talented driver and Australia's most underrated sportsman.
Chris
Guest
Nobody can say Redbull don't favour Vettel. In 2010 Webber leading the championship Chris Horner said we don't favour anyone both get parts or no one gets parts, when Vettel took over the lead he's gets the new wing and nose form Redbull Webbers gets nothing
Steve Peios
Roar Rookie
For all his flaws, like the examples given that he doesn't start races well and that he may be a bit defensive, I certainly see the other side of the argument. At absolute worst though, he's been a quality number two and deserves to be treated a little better than what he has in my opinion. I also agree with Nick above that Vettel is their number one preference and hard to argue why. I cant help but think that if rolls were reversed in Malaysia earlier this year and it was Webber who had said the proverbial 'suck eggs' to his team mate, then Red Bull would have come down on him with a much tougher sanction and not brushed it aside.
Chairman Kaga
Guest
Watched Webber's career pretty much since when he was in F3. I actually vaguely remember him in his Yellow Pages F Ford going around Australia. He has done very well to get where he did. It was tough going for him to even get his backside into a GP car at the beginning. The owner of the Minardi team basically had to let him get in on the cheap as it was one of those pay driver teams when he could have taken someone else with a lot more money. He came through the system the tough way, driving average cars where the only measureable real result was beating your own teammate regularly and finishing. Webber did well and pretty much beat every teammate he had to go up against. I even think he trouble the very experienced David Coultard. The Scot was on his last legs in GP racing then. When Seb Vettell joined him at Red Bull, I think it would have been the first time in Webber's career he was the clear 2nd best driver. It pains me to say this also, I also wanted to believe the conspiracies but unfortunately the evidence is overwhelming. Webber's crucial flaw is he just cannot do well off the starting grid. He is consistent in races, largely keeps out of trouble, knows how to get cars through races, manages tires and drives a good pace lap after lap. But for some reason he just never was great starting. It might be his problem is he is a fair bit larger than the other drivers on the grid. So his size, altering the weight of the car might be an issue. Also I noticed he is a fairly conservative driver. He backs off rather than risks a crash. The champions of the past seem to have the attitude of crash or crash through. Possibly he was always on a budget growing up and could not afford to chuck cars about so he nurses them more. Thing is, his teammate has had pretty much the same car over many, many races and the consistency of the beatings off the starting line tell the tale no matter how you want to spin it. He had his shot in 2010 to win, but was too defensive in that last 3rd of the season. He should have went for wins rather than aggregating points. But really, he has lived the dream very few of us Aussies will get near tasting. In my book, he has done incredibly well and deserves everything. A champion person if not driver's champion. Stirling Moss was not either. He can still win Le Mans, maybe even Indianapolis. What a great life he has led. Lucky him.
Mike Oxbig
Guest
Go Queanbeyan!
Nick
Guest
Webber was certainly the number two driver at red bull, but that is not to say Red Bull were out to deny him victory when the moment presented itself. There have been many many times when Webber has shot himself in the foot through appalling starts. I can recall his past 3 pole positions where he did not enter corner one in still in first place. Vettel on the other hand is always switched on on race day. When someone is always fighting for victory, instead of having to scrap a podium finish from 8th/9th place, its hard for Red Bull to not preference Vettel. Furthermore, as Vettel frequently outqualifies Webber, what would sometimes appear to be a preference for Vettel is mostly just the team naturally ensuring that the driver who is ahead of the teammate remains that way. That being said, there have been some times when Vettel has obviously been preferred - such as in new hardware or pitting preference.
Jukes
Guest
Every driver in F1 is a talented driver. Unfortunately for Mark he wasnt talented enough to win a championship, even though he had a great chance in 2010. From then on its been all Vettel and Mark since has not been able to match him. There is a reason why Redbull rightly or wrongly are favouring Vettel, he is their no1 driver. Something Mark claimed prior to Vettel winning his first championship. He has had a great career although I feel he may regret not winning that championship in 2010.
nachos supreme
Guest
I often wonder what would have happened had he not busted his shoulder mountiain biking, apparently unsanctioned mountain biking,prior to Korea and gone on to win the championship. I think him not fitting the Red Bull image and not telling the team about said busted shoulder didn't help his chances afterward either. I think it's fair to say that Vettel was taking championships but I get the feeling had Webbo taken that first one he'd have had a year or maybe 2 of number 1 status in the team, things might have been different...for a while at least.
Silver_Sovereign
Guest
Webber had a fairly good career in formula one. Would have been good to get that championship in 2010 where he was leading for most of the year and beat Alan Jones win record of 11. With all the bad luck over the years, Webber should have one 15+ races. The commentators use to call him the driver with the worst luck. 99 percent of the time it was the car or someone else's fault for a DNF of his.