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Should Red Bull have instructed Webber not to overtake?
Mark Webber has admitted that he defied the orders of Red Bull team boss Christian Horner at the Silverstone Grand Prix, after being told to ‘maintain the gap’ and allow teammate Sebastian Vettel to retain second place instead of overtaking him.
The pole-qualifier also revealed that he was highly unhappy with the team’s decision.
"I am not fine with it, no. If Fernando (Alonso) retires on the last lap, we are fighting for the win,” he said.
Although this incident appears not to affect the championship as directly as say, Austria 2002, this sort of team ordering immediately conjures memories of Barichello being told to slow-down for Schumacher – albeit with roles reversed.
I believe Webber was right to continue challenging after a terrific drive that saw him catch Vettel from over four seconds behind in the last few laps. However Vettel would not admit that he might have challenged had the two been the other way around. He remarked after the race:
"If you have the cars quite isolated in second and third, with the first guy away and the fourth guy pretty far away, from the team's point of view there is no point racing and doing something stupid.
“If it was the other way around, there is no point - of course I would like to overtake Mark at that stage, so no point trying to do something stupid. I don't see why there is such a fuss," he said.
The ‘something stupid’ he is referring to is the potential of causing a crash which would see one or both of the team’s cars out of points contention or further down the order. Ironically this exact chain of events occurred at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and it was Vettel who was the one who attempted the overtake. This issue remains controversial in its own right; however Webber saw no danger of this happening again.
"Of course I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get a place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I wasn't going to crash with anyone. I try to do my best with the amount of one way conversation I was having - I was trying to do my best to pass the guy in front," he said.
I’m sorry, but that’s racing.
Formula 1 is without doubt a team sport but the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Webber also downplayed suggestions that he still feels he is being treated as the ‘number two’ driver of the team, yet there is still much chatter which suggests sympathy for the view that he famously came out with after winning Silverstone last year. Some even go so far as to suggest that the reason for Webber’s possible treatment is because he is Australian and therefore can never draw as much money as a European champion.
What do you think? Is this the case? And should team orders be banned because of it?
The pole-qualifier also revealed that he was highly unhappy with the team’s decision.
"I am not fine with it, no. If Fernando (Alonso) retires on the last lap, we are fighting for the win,” he said.
Although this incident appears not to affect the championship as directly as say, Austria 2002, this sort of team ordering immediately conjures memories of Barichello being told to slow-down for Schumacher – albeit with roles reversed.
I believe Webber was right to continue challenging after a terrific drive that saw him catch Vettel from over four seconds behind in the last few laps. However Vettel would not admit that he might have challenged had the two been the other way around. He remarked after the race:
"If you have the cars quite isolated in second and third, with the first guy away and the fourth guy pretty far away, from the team's point of view there is no point racing and doing something stupid.
“If it was the other way around, there is no point - of course I would like to overtake Mark at that stage, so no point trying to do something stupid. I don't see why there is such a fuss," he said.
The ‘something stupid’ he is referring to is the potential of causing a crash which would see one or both of the team’s cars out of points contention or further down the order. Ironically this exact chain of events occurred at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and it was Vettel who was the one who attempted the overtake. This issue remains controversial in its own right; however Webber saw no danger of this happening again.
"Of course I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get a place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I wasn't going to crash with anyone. I try to do my best with the amount of one way conversation I was having - I was trying to do my best to pass the guy in front," he said.
I’m sorry, but that’s racing.
Formula 1 is without doubt a team sport but the line has to be drawn somewhere.
Webber also downplayed suggestions that he still feels he is being treated as the ‘number two’ driver of the team, yet there is still much chatter which suggests sympathy for the view that he famously came out with after winning Silverstone last year. Some even go so far as to suggest that the reason for Webber’s possible treatment is because he is Australian and therefore can never draw as much money as a European champion.
What do you think? Is this the case? And should team orders be banned because of it?
2024
Location: Wollongong, 
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