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Horner accuses Webber of 'thinking only of himself'

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has angrily criticised Mark Webber for having 'absolutely unnecessarily risked a crash' in last weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone - and with it, potentially, his 2012 seat at the team...

It is still far from forgiven-and-forgotten and all sweetness-and-light at Red Bull Racing in the aftermath of last weekend's contentious British Grand Prix, it seems, with Christian Horner hitting out at Mark Webber for having selfishly and 'absolutely unnecessarily risked a crash'.

After Webber homed right in on the back of second-placed Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel with barely a handful of laps left to run at Silverstone on Sunday, the feisty Australian was instructed by his team over the pit-to-car radio to hold station – an order that he ignored 'probably four or five' times [see separate story – click here], proceeding to attack the current runaway F1 2011 World Championship leader for the runner-up spoils.

Team principal Horner has repeatedly stressed that the cautious tactic was adopted 'since we would have looked pretty stupid if they'd both ended up in the fence' given that his responsibility 'is to ensure that the team optimises its results' [see separate story – click here] – and he has angrily criticised Webber's disobedience.

“He risked the second place of Sebastian, his third place and 33 points for the team,” the Englishman told German newspaper Bild. “I understand that he's racing, but he also absolutely unnecessarily risked a crash. If all 500 people in the team thought only of themselves, we could never achieve our goals.”

Horner promised to hold discussions with Webber in private to clear the air – not the first time such talks have had to be conducted behind closed doors at Red Bull – and when asked about whether Webber's actions had similarly 'risked' his chances of retaining his seat at the Milton Keynes-based squad next year, he was evasive, conceding only that 'we will meet in late August and take a decision together'. Prior to the Silverstone weekend, the six-time grand prix-winner had looked to be edging increasingly closer to a contract renewal.

Horner reiterated that any team-mate to Vettel 'must bring harmony to the team', and concluded: “We don't have a driver problem; everyone in the pit-lane is already beating on our door, and we have time...”

Chaos

Hire Rubens,he has this role down pat.

5:04

I love Weebber, but I want to see Kobayashi at RBR

Rich Sandor

Mark was not really faster than Seb. Seb backed off because of the gap between him and Fernando, which allowed Mark to catch up. The team asked him to back off because Seb had backed off.. and had Seb still been driving 100%, Mark would not have caught up. So really we had a completely unnecessary race going on.

ltc

Clearly Sato is the perfect #2 at RBR.

TexasRider

I think they must ALWAYS have to have some drama in F1.

For starters neither Vettel or Webber were going to run down Alonzo and the RBR crew knew that. So they hold their position and maybe Alonzo breaks or
something. Vettel backs off to hold the lead. And now Webber attacks. Great IF he was going to run down Alonzo but obviously he was not. So they say just hold what we got. And he ignores it. It might be different IF they were tied, or close, etc. But he has had 9 races and about 50 laps to get ahead there.
Wrecking a couple of the RBR cars wont help Webbers frustration.

Team stuff has always been like this. You know it when you sign on. And then it begins. First guy you have to beat is generally your team mate. Then things like set up and parts come up. The team wants you to run something. You dont want to do it as it might not work. He runs it and then beats you. Then you say they crapped on you. These are grown men right? Then you use it and you dont win. Again the teams fault?

I dont reckon Webber going anywhere. I mean he is 2nd or 3rd. He just has to beat one guy. But that guy is going better at the moment. Happens like that.

RajDatta

I dont remember Horner having the same stance when Seb risked the same and took himself out. Webbo was leading the race at the time. Double standards???

My993C2

Double Standard? Maybe ... or how about "Lessons Learned".

morganabowen

I totally agree, Rubens is the perfect second banana, just ask Schummy or Button

RajDatta

Only time will tell. We would need a Webbo leading Seb to see that. For now, his stance was very different for Seb than it is for Webbo.

Ritter v4.0

Horner could have advised Vettel " Mark is clearly faster . . .let him by".
If he was in fact- avoiding possible crash.
But its more fun when drovers ignore team orders and they end up in big pile

Astroman

+1

+1 again.

Carrera51

I think Webber bellyaches too much. He had a shot at the title last year and came up short. Vettel delivered by crushing Webber and Alonso at the last race in 2010. And he has dominated this season. So he has earned his #1 status. Webber needs to accept that or go somewhere else where he can be number one.

I'd like to see Kimi, Kobayashi, or Di Resta in that seat next year. Kobayashi led F1 in most cars passed on the track last season. He's earned himself a shot in a podium car.

paradisenb

The question marks are appropriate. Maybe there is a double standard, maybe not. Let's consider the circumstances - In last year's crash, both drivers were competing heads up w/o either having a significant points lead. Not so this year. Also, where were they in the race? Last year they were in the middle of the race with nothing decided. At Silverstone, it was the last few laps of the race and positions were already decided, assuming each driver maintained their current pace. No one was going to overtake FA. Why not maintain position and score points with both cars?

Horner is speaking as an employer. I imagine he fells dis-ed by Mark disobeying a direct order and then bragging about it the media.

And at the end of the day, even with Seb backing off, Webbo was not able to overtake him.

A.Wayne

Hilarious ... the owners must be laughing .....................