I Lost a Lot of Trust With Sebastian Vettel : Mark Webber

The F1 circus has an infestation of drama within its tents. The uncertainty of what may happen and who will eventually stand on the podium is monumental. However, the drama is also existent outside the tracks. For instance, and we may need to brush our memory here, the Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel rivalry at Red Bull. The Turkish Grand Prix crash. Now that is the drama we’re talking about.

Reeling back in time, the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2013 saw Mark Webber exit the world of F1. Sebastian Vettel won the race and the Championship later on. However, the bitter story unfolds later. Down at the last laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Red Bull advised its racers to slow down and hold the position. Webber in 1st and Sebastian Vettel in 2nd. However, Vettel disobeyed and sped past his teammate. Webber, dumbstruck, just kept staring at Vettel in awe. Cut to the present day, Webber unravels how the situation got worse since Vettel arrived at Red Bull.

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Sebastian Vettel was never on good terms with Webber

The press and fans were privies only to the head on head at tracks. However, the bond was nothing better off camera. Mark Webber said that they had crossed the line in their personal vendetta many times.

“We absolutely overstepped the mark professionally often, and I lost a lot of trust with him on the professional sense,” remarked Webber.

Although Sebastian Vettel and Webber are good now, they had to come through a lot of bad blood to be here.

“We are pretty tight now, there are messages exchanged, so that’s gone, I’ve had enough bottles of red to let that pass on,” said Webber.

Internal rivalry is a slow poison in the team

Webber recalls the season of 2010, a year after Vettel arrived at Red Bull. He explains the team aiming for the cup that season. Their rivals? Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The team needed concentration and focus. However, according to Webber, the german was a hindrance in that manner.

“But in terms of what was happening at the time if he got food poisoning, and I don’t know who would have put something in his food… but ultimately it was a headache for the team because we were going for a World Championship in that 2010 year and we were both in the same team against Lewis and Fernando, four of us at the last race, for this team that was an absolute headache.”

Internal rivalry can be dreadful for a team. Although Red Bull have had quite a few. The Ricciardo and Verstappen rivalry had also turned intense,possibly causing Ricciardo to leave. To hold a team together in such a time is a challenge for the team principal.

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