New Delhi: ‘Not bad for a number two driver’ are not the words that one expects to hear from a Formula One driver who has just won a race. That was Red Bull driver Mark Webber’s reaction after winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone three weeks ago.
What happened then seems to have turned things around for the soft spoken Aussie who now leads the Formula One driver’s championship after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel of Germany who finished third at Hungary must be seething from inside as it was his race for the taking. Vettel who started the race on pole position fell way behind of the safety car which was deployed because of debris on the track. The result was a drive through penalty for him which Webber took full advantage of.
The German Red Bull driver has now allowed Webber to cash in twice because of self inflicted wounds. Vettel who seems to have a habit of grabbing pole positions without actually converting them into race victories suffered similar consequences at Silverstone when he made contact with Mc Laren’s Lewis Hamilton and ended up with a puncture in the very first corner.
In a race that was marred with controversy even before its start, Mark Webber took the honours as Vettel was left to reflect on what might have been? The new front wing of Webber’s car was removed and fitted on Vettel’s car for the qualifying session. A move that the Australian was clearly not impressed with and he made no attempt to hide his feelings once the issue was settled in his favour.
The two Red Bull drivers have been at loggerheads with each other ever since the Turkish Grand Prix this year when the cars of Vettel and Webber collided with each other as neither was willing to get out of the other’s way.
It was not that long ago that Fernando Alonso stopped just short of sabotaging Lewis Hamilton’s attempt of becoming the only F1 driver to win the title in his debut season when the two so called teammates were with McLaren Mercedes. Hamilton went on to lose the 2007 Championship to Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari by a single point.
Alain Prost and the late Aryton Senna who redefined formula one rivalry and had seven World championships between them went hammer and tongs at each other during the late 80s when both were driving for McLaren Honda.
On the other hand Michael Schumacher, regarded by many as the greatest driver in F1 history invariably had a partner who was compelled to play second fiddle to him when he drove for Ferrari from 1996-2006. Eddie Ervine, Rubens Barichello and Filipe Massa who were Shuey’s team mates at different times had to swallow their pride and allow Shumacher to pass them since there were no laws against team orders at that time.
In fact Irvine admitted that he was a happy man when Schumacher broke his leg during the 1999 British Grand Prix since it gave him a chance to aim for the championship title.
Shumi also benefited from the fact that Mika Hakkinen of Finland who was his biggest rival had to also battle with his McLaren Mercedes teammate David Coulthard. Hakinnen should have cantered to the title once Shumacher was out of the way with a broken leg, but that very year Coulthard denied him at least a couple of race wins. However the Finn managed to pip Ulsterman Eddie Irvine to win his second world championship.
Will Red Bull be wiser from the events of the past? Will they be able to sort out the cold war that Webber and Vettel have engaged themselves in or will they shoot themselves in the foot and make things easier for other teams?
One obvious conclusion that can be drawn from all this is that two evenly matched drivers in the best team with the fastest cars might not be the ideal way to go about winning the championship.
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