Mark Webber’s decision to ignore team instructions in the closing stages of the British Grand Prix last weekend has brought out the inevitable circus of rumours. Mostly, it has been a repeat of 2010; suggestions Kimi would return to F1 with Red Bull and hints Mark would be off to Ferrari being the order of the day.
Thankfully, someone in this faux-drama has kept their head. That someone is none other than Red Bull’s grand poobah Dietrich Mateschitz who told Autosport, “Mark Webber will re-sign with us. This will happen for sure. He is very popular within the team, he feels very comfortable and it is an excellent relationship. He knows this and we know it.”
On the direct matter of Webber’s decision to race to the flag Mateschitz said, “This is no problem for us. Sebastian realised that Fernando Alonso was gone and could not be caught anymore, so he backed down. This let Mark close in. He would be a very bad racer had he not tried to attack and gain a position.”
With any luck Daniel Ricciardo will secure a full-time drive as well and we can look forward to two Aussies in F1 again in 2012.
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]
UPDATE: Mark shares his thoughts on team orders and recent discussions with Christian Horner in his new and regular column on the BBC website.
4 replies on “Mark Webber expected to re-sign with Red Bull”
They need people talking about the drivers and not the FIA and rule changes… Webber is not silly, he’s got the media wrapped around his finger and we’re now looking forward to the next round for some rivalry not technical changes…
Thumbs up to AussieGrit !
It was only theater
Red Bull and Vettel need Webber. Mark is known as one of the best testers around (in terms of feedback to engineers), with a huge amount of experience. He has the confidence of the engineers, they trust the feedback they get from MW
Vettel is so young that he simply doesn’t have the same experience. His starting point for setup is “what has Mark got?”
That is my reading of the situation. It will change over the next couple of years as SV gets more experience, but right now, it makes sense to keep MW.
[…] the build up to this weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring we are reminded of the little upset Mark Webber caused at Silverstone when he chose to ignore Christian Horner’s team orders. After chasing […]