Formula 1 2013

[Roy]

Yeh, anyone that has watched F1 knows that Mark isnt the most sympathetic guy out there on tyres and often choses the harder tyre as he seems to be able to make them work better for him

[wolverine]

Clearly heard him on the team radio befor ethe last pit stop saying he preferred the Hards.

Yep he liked the hard tyres more.

[hrd-hr30]

MW now has an extra motivation for 2013 - deny SV another WDC

hopefully he comes around to that way of thinking, because from what he said in the post race interviews its sounds more like it demotivated him. Like he's almost ready to chuck it all in...

[sh@un]

But quietly hoping MW fires up, does his own thing (ie fuc* orders!) before moving to a different team, and smashes the Tool in WDC points by the end of the year.....

Mark's options off-contract from RB likely amount to retirement from F1, or driving for one of the teams that finish each season with a single-figure points total

the idea Webby will one day be WDC and/or drive for Ferrari is, frankly, farcical in my opinion

[DattoP510]

actually i was think more .... last race of the year... SV just need to finish in the points to win ... turn 1 MW goes "MULTI 21 BEEYATCH" SMAASSHHHH!!!

LOL

[Chris-06R]

Here's a fun quote...

Q: (Adam Hay-Nicholls – Metro)
Mark, Christian Horner has said that you should be fine with the team orders at the end and if you and Seb had raced until the end you would both have ended up in the fence. Do you agree with that? Was it the right call? Does this mean realistically that you are out of this championship?

Mark Webber:
I am not fine with it. No. That's the answer to that. If Fernando retires on the last lap we are battling for the victory so I was fine until the end. Of course I ignored the team as I want to try and get another place. Seb was doing his best and I was doing my best. I don't want to crash with anyone, but that was it. I tried to do my best with the amount of conversation I had. One-way conversation obviously as I wasn't talking too much back. There was a lot of traffic coming to me, but I was still trying to do my best to pass the guy in front.

Q: (Adam Hay-Nicholls – Metro)
Do you remember roughly how many messages you had?

Mark Webber:
Probably four or five.

[wolverine]

Boullier said he would be happy to take MW.

Fez had a good look at him but Massa is less of a dud so they are probably happy to leave Massa as Nando's bitch. However, if Fez thought there was some knowledge he would bring for a swansong year then it isn't that hard to believe they might take him vs bring on the current crop of drivers. With Perez at McLaren this shows how weak the drivers market is IMO or more correctly how tough it is to get experience with the lack of testing.

I think we all know the Chin lost his best/only shot at a WDC when he spun the car in Korea but I think he will have a surf for a week and realise that the only thing he can do from here is to just drive as quickly as possible and the rest will sort itself out.

[Roy]

A few people have mentioned the British GP and its not the same situation. At Silverstone they were both racing to the flag and there was no pre race agreement based around a weakness in the car/strategy. Seb had nto been todl to back off and conserve car and he hadnt been told that Mark would not attack

Mark caught him, had a go and he was told to back off which he eventually did. But it was a race to the flag, no car problems like they had with tyres at Spa that same year etc.

In Malaysia there was an agreement before the race and the team had major concerns that the cars couldnt get the laps out of the tyres and they could throw it all away f they took off at 3-4 seconds a lap faster than the Mercs and forced each other to pt again for tyres.

If you want to have a stab at Mark, Brazil last year where after the pace car he went around the outside of Seb into turn 1 when Seb broke earlier then expected was silly of Mark since Seb had the WDC to play for

[benm]

I have no issues with what Vettel did.

I want to see the worlds best drivers racing the fastest cars for the entire race, not until 20 laps from the end then turn everything down and roll around until the chequered flag. If your car won't last the entire race tough shit, if you don't have enough fuel tough shit, if your tyres are going off tough shit. I want to see hard racing (which lets face it, the best racing of the whole race was Webber vs Vettel during that controversal overtake)

Now.... time to watch the GP2 race so I can look for Webbers replacement.

[hrd-hr30]

A few people have mentioned the British GP and its not the same situation. At Silverstone they were both racing to the flag and there was no pre race agreement based around a weakness in the car/strategy.

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/22058/8594521/The-2013-Malaysian-GP-post-race-press-conference-In-full

Mark Weber said himself in a post race interview; "And then after the last stop I thought that it would be interesting how the team would deal with it and I was ready for a sprint to the end. And then the team obviously rang up and said 'the race is... the pressure is off now. We need to look after the tyres to the end. Basically don't fight each other.'

certainly doesn't sound like they had any such pre-race agreement.

ignoring team orders is ignoring team orders. What's more, the comments Mark made about the whole scenario back then are totally inconsistent with his moaning and bitching now. Same goes for the contrast of Seb's reaction to being challenged by Webber against team orders back then, and Webber's whining now... I'm finding it very hard to support Webber on this one. Don't dish it out if you can't take it. And revenge is a dish best served cold.

Edited March 25, 2013 by hrd-hr30

[tweety bird]

Mark Webber is considering his future at Red Bull Racing after Sunday's Malaysian debacle but concedes it is still "early days" and "very raw."

Racing towards his first win of the season in Malaysia, Webber was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel with ten laps to go despite Red Bull having told both drivers to stay put.

In the immediate aftermath, a furious Webber accused Red Bull of protecting Vettel "as usual" while the German later apologised, admitting he "f***ed up."

But whether that holds any sway when Webber considers his future remains to be seen.

"I think it's very early days right now. It's very raw, obviously, and we need to work out how the team goes best forwards from here," said the 36-year-old.

"That's obviously going to be discussed this week. I will be in Australia on my surfboard - the phone won't be engaged.

"There were a lot of things in my mind in the last 15 laps of the grand prix, to be honest, so whether the medicine is enough we will see."

He added: "It puts a lot of heat on certain people for sure. Inevitably it does, because unfortunately there is no rewind button."

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/8596049/Webber-No-rewind-button

Christian Horner says Sebastian Vettel deliberately put his own agenda ahead of the team's as he overtook Mark Webber for the Malaysian GP win.

With ten laps to go, the reigning World Champ attacked Webber with the duo almost touching as Vettel grabbed the lead from his team-mate.

Asked why Red Bull did not order Vettel to give the position back to Webber, Horner toldAutosport: "Do you honestly think that if we had told him 'slow down and give the place back', he would have given it back?

"There was no point. He had made it quite clear what his intention was by making the move. He knew what the communication was. He had had the communication. He chose to ignore it.

"He put his interest beyond what the team's position was. He was focused on those seven points difference between second and first place - which was wrong. He has accepted it was wrong."

The team boss believes it is now time to put the matter to rest despite reports that Webber is considering his future with the team.

"I've spoken to both drivers and Sebastian has apologised to both Mark and the team," he toldThe Guardian.

"From our point of view as soon as that last pitstop was completed the instruction was given to both cars effectively to hold position. At that point Sebastian has chosen to ignore that.

"The driver is thinking about 25 points and we are thinking about the 43 points and we just want to close the result off.

"Obviously it wasn't right what he did, he accepts that, clearly said if he could wind the clock back he wouldn't do it again. That's the way it is. We need to put it behind us and move on."

He added: "Seb and Mark have been a pairing for five years and won three consecutive Championships together.

"They are one of the most successful pairings of all time. For sure, they've never been the best of mates and they are never going to spend Christmas together.

"There is a respect between the two of them and I am sure with a little bit of time to reflect we will quickly move on from this."

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/8595956/-Vettel-Deliberately-Ignored-Team-Orders-

i don't think so christian..

[Roy]

certainly doesn't sound like they had any such pre-race agreement.

Horner said that the team always discussed strategy before the race when interviewed by Sky. The team were really concerned about getting more than 6-8 laps and they can race up to the last pit stop

[hrd-hr30]

Mark's comments quoted above make it very clear they did not agree to that before the race, or at least he was confusd about the strategy to be employed - why would he say he was interested to see how the team would handle the last stint with him in front of Seb and that he was ready to have to sprint to the end, if they had such a simple agreement in place before the race?

So it's no different to Silverstone in that regard.

Edited March 25, 2013 by hrd-hr30

[Roy]

Very clear? ok. To me Mark is saying he knows how the team dynamic is and he was curious as to whether they were going to stick with teh plan or favour Seb.

"nteresting" because there were any number of scenarios that could play out that were different to original plan. Anyway...always good to read your unique perspective on things:)

DC seems to havea good feel for the situation unlike some other people who are trying to further escalate the situation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21927284

What will be interesting is how Horner responds. Moving forward that is the bigger issue then Webber not liking Vettel and vice versa. Nothing new there but how does Horner get control of what the cars are doing out on track back.

[Roy]

The hits keep on coming

Cant attach a pic. But there is some more funny Vettel medications getting around

[MattR]

another funny going around

Edited March 25, 2013 by MattR

[hrd-hr30]

Very clear? ok. To me Mark is saying he knows how the team dynamic is and he was curious as to whether they were going to stick with teh plan or favour Seb.

"nteresting" because there were any number of scenarios that could play out that were different to original plan. Anyway...always good to read your unique perspective on things:)

it is very clear - if they had agreed before the race they would just be holding positions for the final stint, why would he be wondering how the team would handle it and be ready for a sprint to the end?

[Tangles]

Shaun, I certainly dont believe that MW will ever take the WDC crown, but Im hoping that he comes in front of SV in the points by years end.

Also, Id be pretty certain another 'decent' team would arrange a seat for him for a year, but most likely scenario is retirement at years end, yes.

[Roy]

If anyone has full access to Autosport there is an interesting article that sizes things up pretty well... "Vettel: the monster Red Bull created"

[hrd-hr30]

Anyway, it gave Formula 1 fans (those of us who love the sport, and aren't particularly Webber or Vettel, or even Red Bull fans) a great dice instead of more of the crap we saw with the 2 Mercs trundling around doing absolutely nothing, when clearly one was MUCH faster than the other. What happened there I can't understand.

That was absolutely a low act by Brawn IMO - Yeah look Nico, Lewis burnt up everything he had up earlier in the race just barely staying ahead of you while you saved enough in reserve to go fast right to the end. Don't you dare pass him just because you've driven the GP better or chosen a better strategy to get to the end of the race and might be able to put some pressure on the Red Bulls who were less than 9 seconds ahead with 12 laps to go and had told their drivers to turn their engines down and cruise to the end because they're worried about tyres lasting the distance... But even at the "pace" Hamilton was running, they still reduced the gap to Webber throughout the final stint... maybe he was struggling to see through the tears What might have happened if Nico was allowed to drive his own race and put them under pressure?

Crocodile tears from Hamilton saying Nico deserved that spot, were 100% right, but insincere - if he actually felt that strongly that he didn't deserve that spot and Nico did, he would have let him pass instead of being embarassed that the team protected him.

Edited March 27, 2013 by hrd-hr30