Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Red Bull gives you old wings


© PA Images
Red Bull may have won the British Grand Prix but the immediate focus after the race was on the tensions between its team-mates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. After one post-race interview about the ?crisis? in the team, Christian Horner was caught muttering, "By the way we have just won the f***ing British Grand Prix?. But on Monday the stories on the back pages of the papers were more about the battle in the Red Bull garage than the one on the track. Daily Telegraph journalist Tom Cary picked up on a hilarious but very telling moment immediately after the race.
?It was extraordinary stuff. But perhaps not as extraordinary as the alleged shenanigans in the pitlane below him where Horner?s worst nightmares were apparently unfolding. Webber?s mechanics were said to have removed the 'old? front wing that Webber had been forced to race with and waved it at Vettel?s side of the garage. They, just as much as Webber, had been angered by the apparent favouritism shown by Red Bull?s management and were not afraid to show the world that simmering resentment.?
On the whole most reports agreed that Webber had been hard done by, but few were quite as scathing about Vettel as Byron Young in the Mirror.
?And Red Bull slid ever closer to civil war with Vettel and his team on one side and Webber and the world on the other. Dubbed "Baby Schu" by his own German media, Vettel seems to have plenty in common with the legendary racer with a reputation for questionable ethics and dubious tactics.?
Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail said Webber had every right to be upset by Vettel taking his wing after practice.
?The simple fact of the wing transference was almost as brutal. Think of the disturbances within the England camp during the World Cup, when a player like Wayne Rooney discovered he was not being used in his favourite position. Now imagine how Webber must have felt to discover that not only was he not the first priority for his team, they were, in effect, working against him by giving a rival for the drivers? championship, albeit a colleague, the better car at his expense.?
And Paul Weaver of the Guardian said that the most shocking thing was that Red Bull hadn?t learnt from the bust-up at the Turkish Grand Prix.
?In winning the British Grand Prix the Australian Mark Webber gave the impression that he had to overcome not only the other 23 drivers on the grid but also team Red Bull, who have clearly learned nothing from the debacle in Turkey six weeks ago when their two drivers crashed into each other when running first and second.?

Pat Flaherty Jan Flinterman Ron Flockhart Myron Fohr Gregor Foitek

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