Mark Webber didn’t look too happy at the end of today’s qualifying session, considering he was driving one hell of a car and was starting on the front row for the British Grand Prix.
This is because prior to qualifying, Christian Horner elected to take the new front wing off Webber’s car and put it on Vettel’s, and in my book, Webber has every right to feel aggrieved at this totally wrong decision by the Red Bull team principal.
Horner tried to justify his decision:
“After this morning’s incident we only had one new spec front wing available for qualifying, which Adrian [Newey] was very keen to run; not necessarily because it was better, but because it offered a new direction to look at.
“Therefore it came to me to make a difficult decision as to which car it went on. A situation like that is not ideal and it doesn’t happen very often. It went to Sebastian based on Championship position, his performance in P3 and the drivers’ feedback on the different front wings from yesterday.”
Christian Horner
In my book the front wing should have been kept on Webber’s car, and the margins were so tight that he could well have secured pole if that had been the case.
The simple fact is that the upgrade was Mark Webber’s. While it wasn’t Vettel’s fault his wing fell off in practice, it wasn’t Webber’s either, so it is totally unfair to punish the Aussie for a mistake that had nothing to do with him whatsoever.
Also, Horner’s argument that Vettel was given the wing on the basis of championship position is ridiculous, setting a risky precedent. What this says is that whatever driver is in front in the standings gets all the upgrades at the next race, when realistically I doubt this would happen. For example, if Vettel crashes out tomorrow, and Webber takes the win and goes ahead in the driver’s championship, are you seriously telling me Webber would get all the upgrades in Germany? I doubt it.
Red Bull were accused of favouring Vettel following the incident at the Turkish Grand Prix, and these latest revelations won’t make these accusations any quieter…
What are your thoughts on ‘Winggate’? Leave a comment!
I completely agree with you. If a driver gets an upgrade, they should keep that upgrade. You shouldn’t take something off one car and put it on another just because the other one broke.
It should have been Marks because of the incidents during Valencia. He was given Vettels old chassis, which had damage, and could have potentially slowed Webber down a little.
I think the argument “Vettel is ahead in the championship” is pointless. It should be the opposite. The driver that is behind in the championship should have the upgrade before the one in front.
I’d understand if it was the penultimate race weekend or that Webber was out of contention, but it isn’t & he isn’t.
RBR really had nothing to worry about this weekend bar a driver error and a front wing won’t make up that time so I think neither should have had it.
That said, if things were closer and it was me in charge I’d have given it to whoever was leading the title and/or seemed to have the momentum around the track. It’s still a business. It’s not how I like it to be at all though. As a armchair pundit I can say what’s fair and not but if I was in charge I think wanting to win would take over.