Here's how Christian Horner sees it:
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner expressed “huge frustration” at the collision between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel that ruined both drivers’ races and cost the team 28 points – and said both drivers had to accept a share of responsibility. Polesitter Webber led the majority of the race, while a shrewd early tyre change for Vettel promoted him to second place ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, putting the team on course for its third one-two finish of the season. But on lap 40, when Vettel got a run on Webber on the back straight, the pair clashed as they both refused to yield track position, ending Vettel’s race on the spot and consigning Webber to third place.
Horner made no attempt to disguise his anger afterwards, saying his two drivers had broken the cardinal rule that team-mates must not take each other off – and contrasting their antics with the tense but clean duel between McLaren duo Hamilton and Jenson Button.
“It’s really disappointing for the team to get into that position,” he said. “The one request I have for the drivers is that they must give each other room, give each other respect. “As we saw with Lewis and Jenson today, they fought pretty hard but they gave each other just enough room.”
Horner said the accident was particularly galling because Red Bull had outwitted McLaren on pit strategy and was on course to extend its championship lead.
“It was a massively close race between ourselves and McLaren today, and we’d managed to get ourselves ahead of them through a better pit stop and a better strategy with Sebastian,” he said. “We gave 28 points to McLaren on a plate today, which is disappointing for all the guys [Red Bull team members] who’ve put in so much hard work. “So it’s very frustrating.”
Many observers laid the blame squarely at Vettel’s door for prematurely moving across on Webber when he had not completed the pass. But Horner did not see the incident that way, pointing out that Vettel was faster than Webber at that stage of the race and that the Australian had given him very little racing room by squeezing him to the far inside of the straight. However he also reckoned Vettel had misjudged his manoeuvre by drifting across the track before he had pulled clear of Webber’s car.
“Sebastian had a clear run and he was quicker at that point of the race,” he noted. “Mark kept him on the dirty line and Sebastian came over arguably a bit too early.” He added: “You could see on the previous lap that Mark was looking like he was starting to struggle on that set of prime tyres, and Sebastian was very, very close to him. “He had a little bit of a look the previous lap and then got a very good run out of turn nine, got into his slipstream, and was actually three-quarters of the way past when they made contact. “I’m annoyed that they both got themselves into that situation. They are both at fault. “They didn’t give each other enough room – it’s as simple as that.”
When it was put to Horner that it was surprising Vettel had managed to get alongside Webber when Hamilton had been unable to do so throughout the first stint – despite the McLaren’s clear straightline speed advantage – he initially insisted the German had simply got a particularly strong exit from turn nine.
“You could see that Sebastian had a pace advantage,” he said. “I think Mark wasn’t quite as happy on that set of prime tyres. “
Both guys were in the same engine mode, but one got a tow and the benefit of the tow was enough to put him alongside.”
However, Webber indicated that wasn’t the whole story when in the post-race press conference he advised journalists to “dig more” to understand why he had suddenly fallen into Vettel’s clutches. After a team debrief Horner later revealed that Webber had turned his engine down into a fuel-saving mode on the lap in question, which was what enabled Vettel to pick up his slipstream so early on the straight. It seems Vettel had been able to save an extra kilogramme of fuel as a result of having spent the race in the slipstream of other cars, and therefore was able to run one extra lap flat-out – which meant lap 40 gave him a potentially make-or-break opportunity to pass his team-mate.
But Horner pointed out that Red Bull did not have the option of reining Vettel in because he was under pressure from the close-following McLarens, with less than three seconds covering the leading quartet. “The problem was that you’ve got two McLarens right behind you, so you’re not in a position where you can start backing off at that stage of the race, so both drivers were going flat-out,” he explained.
And he was adamant that, whatever the circumstances, there was no excuse for two team-mates to crash into each other. “It’s inevitable when you’ve got two guys fighting at the front that occasionally you are going to have incidents – but what you don’t expect is to see it within your own team,” he said.
I am calling BULLSHIT on Horner. If they could not rein in Vette because of the pressure McLaren was applyingl, why then COULD they rein in Webber? Horner is talking out of both sides of his mouth and it makes me wonder why he would do that?
Although there IS one explanation that springs to mind.......
I said at the beginning of the season that the "no refueling" rule would lead to cars running out of fuel. That hasn't happened. But with McLaren on the radio telling Hamilton to conserve fuel at the end, and with Webber told to dial back his engine to conserve fuel, it is apparent that fuel strategy figured prominently in the results in Turkey.
I may be alone in this regard, as lots of people seem to think that having to manage tires and fuel is an integral part of racing. And it is, in some types of racing, particularly endurance racing. But for a sport that DARES to call itself the pinnacle of motorsports, forcing the drivers to cruise around in the middle of the race at the expense of giving the fans close combat on track is a huge disservice to the fans. Booo, Formula One!
