It’s fairly normal as an F1 fan to find yourself trawling through engineering books and websites after races, looking for clarification on the latest technical craze to sweep through the paddock. Yet, after the British Grand Prix, I headed for the dictionary, in search of the word ‘team’.
Mark Webber was left furious after the Red Bull team stripped his car of a new front wing and handed it to teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was marginally ahead of Webber in the drivers’ championship. It was effectively like Fabio Capello asking Emile Heskey to remove his shiny new boots and hand them over to Wayne Rooney, as he has more chance of scoring. After requiring brutal competiveness on their drivers CV’s, the team really only have themselves to blame for Webber’s reaction.
Favouritism
The Australian’s dismay and anger was obvious, and indeed his comment over the Red Bull team radio after passing the chequered flag at Silverstone taught us all more about Formula 1 than Martin Brundle could in a week. Webber’s claim of “Not bad for a number two driver” was met with panic from the team who had already spent 24hrs palming off claims that they favour their German driver, and soon after we heard that they simply favour the championship leader.
Still, you can’t really help but feel sorry for the Australian. After successfully proving that a Red Bull really does give you wings by taking off in his car in Valencia two weeks earlier, he might have expected some sympathy from the team after what was a massive shunt. What he got instead was effectively a demotion.
The tables have turned
However, as proof that this sport moves quickly in every way, Mark Webber will board his flight to Germany for this weekend’s Grand Prix as Red Bull’s number one driver, after pocketing 25 points at Silverstone and over taking Vettel’s championship tally. Should the Australian lose a part of his car before his teammate’s home race this weekend, engineers will be unhinging the German’s car to upgrade Webber’s motor, now that really would bring controversy.
You really couldn’t make this stuff up, and while many say that reliability is the biggest reason that the fastest team by a long way are not heading the championship, it could well be that wild strategy - of which a brilliant example was presented to the world’s media on a plate in Northamptonshire at the last Grand prix - is a big factor too.
Mclaren showing how PR is done
Meanwhile, Mclaren have been learning from Red Bull all along, covering Lewis and Jenson’s relationship in tinsel and diamonds. The Woking based team has not missed many opportunities to show off the pair’s good rapport in interviews in recent weeks, and it has even emerged that the two share lifts to and from work.
Yet, behind all of the laughs and giggles, the fact remains that Lewis, Jenson and all other teammates in motorsport want to beat each other more than anyone else, because in reality, your team mate is your only true competitor, as in most cases they have the same cars with the same parts – sorry Mark!
Even if the Woking based team could convince us that Lewis and Jenson had undertaken a civil partnership, you couldn’t mask Jenson’s disappointment that Lewis had crept further into the distance at Silverstone, and had furthered is reputation as Formula 1’s man to beat.
Both teams had driver misunderstandings on the track just a few races ago in Turkey, and although Red Bull’s was more severe, Mclaren’s response has been throwing all resources into building a perceived friendship between Button and Hamilton, and Red Bull have seemingly done quite the contrary.
There is no doubt that Red Bull have the fastest car, and any team will struggle to match them race to race in qualifying without huge progression as their down force levels indicate that they seem to have found a second source of gravity. However, like many organisations that produce miracle products in a relatively short space of time, they seem to have forgotten about their main assets; people, in this case drivers. I know that Australia agrees, but Red Bull will be hoping Germany doesn’t too after this weekend.