'At the time of the accident Vettel was clearly faster than Webber. 'From my perspective,' said former long-time FIA president Mosley, 'I do not think that Sebastian Vettel should receive the blame for the collision.' Interestingly, 70-year-old Briton Mosley is a close friend and former F1 ally of Red Bull's Austrian billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz.ĭr Helmut Marko, also Austrian and Mateschitz's right-hand man on motor racing matters, also initially blamed Webber for the lap-40 shunt at Istanbul Park. With the blame-game apparently put to bed, Mosley however told the German newspaper Die Welt that he thinks the crash was Australian Webber's fault. Mark and I are racers and we were racing,' German Vettel, 22, is quoted as saying. 'I'm sorry for the team that we lost the lead of the race. Sport can be amazing sometimes, huh, that's why we love it!Īs Red Bull drew a line under the matter on Thursday, former FIA president Max Mosley waded into the debate about the collision between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in Turkey.Īfter a meeting in Milton-Keynes on Thursday, the team issued a statement that included a jovial photo of the teammates with the caption 'Shit happens'. Webber wrote on his Twitter on Wednesday: 'Bloody hell guys, thank you for your support. 'I would be logical for the team to focus on one driver, but usually that would be the one who is in front,' said Lauda.

He also points out the current difficulty, with Vettel apparently favoured but Webber leading the World Championship and 15 points clear of the sister car. But that would be team orders and not allowed.' 'But that is not in the spirit of our team,' he insisted.Īdded Lauda: 'In terms of the team, Webber is to blame (for the crash) because they wanted him to wave Vettel past. Red Bull insists that Webber and Vettel are treated equally, but Marko is quoted as saying appointing a number one would be an 'easier' strategy. 'It was only because the team wanted to influence the race that it got messed up,' the Austrian continued. 'Whoever thought previously that Webber is the number two was well informed,' the triple world champion is quoted by German-language. Niki Lauda thinks German Vettel, 22, is clearly the team's number one driver. 'There was no way you could do that because of the McLarens being right there,' said the Briton.Īnd team advisor Marko told Bild newspaper: 'Mark had radioed the pits to say he was having problems and was slow.'Īlso slow was his pitstop, 33-year-old Webber claimed after the race, joking that his crew 'put fuel in, I think'.Īccording to some German reports, video footage exists of Horner mouthing 'pass!' on the pitwall in the moments immediately before Vettel's overtaking attempt. Red Bull has said Webber was - unlike Vettel - in a fuel-saving engine mode at the time of the contact, and was also struggling with tyre wear.Īnd in quotes published by British newspapers The Independent, the Mirror and the Telegraph, boss Christian Horner revealed that Webber asked the team to advise Vettel to back off the lap before the crash. While team figures have backed away from pointedly blaming Webber for the incident, isolated as a scapegoat could be his race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam.Īlready heavily criticised by Dr Helmut Marko, Germany's Auto Motor und Sport claims that Pilbeam not only failed to pass on information about the charging Vettel, but actually told Webber to use his overtake button to repel the attack.

The meeting followed new developments in the wake of last Sunday's collision of the two RB6 cars while leading the Turkish Grand Prix. The drivers have now issued a statement (quoted from following), finally putting the blame-game to bed. Red Bull's clear-the-air meeting, attended by both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, has taken place at the team's Milton-Keynes headquarters.

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