Webber: Red Bull's Folly

[Galahad]

I think part of the problem for Alguersuari and Buemi is that their performance is so similar. It gives one doubts, and there's no doubt about Marrrrrrrk.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

I imagine that Red Bull know all about the strength and weakness of both Alguersauri and Buemi...and they probably have traces and data that other teams don't. Probably.

You never know, BUE and ALG might be the next Vettel!

Shame one of them might be out of a job next year, though.

 

[Mezzer]

Webber is the perfect second driver as far as the team are concerned.

He's not going to challenge Vettel in pursuit of the WDC, yet brings home enough points to secure the WCC.

Why would Red Bull want to change that?

And there it is in a nutshell. They don't want anyone too quick or too slow and that's Webber. One thing I've noted throughout the season, though, is that Webber has appeared to have had a number of DRS and/or KERS issues where Vettel has not. A consipracy theorist might suggest that this has not been totally accidental, but who knows.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Webber has appeared to have had a number of DRS and/or KERS issues where Vettel has not. A consipracy theorist might suggest that this has not been totally accidental, but who knows.

At least his mechanical issues weren't as severe as Vettel's in 2010.

Vettel lost 3 wins in 2010 because of Mechanical/Engine...Bahrain, Australia, Korea.

Vettel also lost 2nd (Spain) because of breaks. The team asked him to retire the car on safety concerns...yet he kept going and finished the Spanish GP.

That doesn't include a cracked chassis at Monaco which they fixed.

Sometimes there's no conspiracy. Sometimes it's "luck of the draw" or the Law Of Averages. It hit Vettel the hardest of anyone in 2010 and cost him 66 points in all and nearly cost him the championship.

I don't think Webber lost 66 points this year...and whatever he lost, I don't think it cost him the world championship.

Seb also has had KERs issues in some races and bungled stops too. He's lucked out more whilst Webber has had some poor decisions which were down to himself (like doing only one Q3 run a few GPs ago).

Thems the brakes.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I thought i'd add my thoughts in this thread.

Good thinking.

 

[Mezzer]

Sometimes there's no conspiracy. Sometimes it's "luck of the draw" or the Law Of Averages. It hit Vettel the hardest of anyone in 2010 and cost him 66 points in all and nearly cost him the championship.I don't think Webber lost 66 points this year...and whatever he lost, I don't think it cost him the world championship.Thems the brakes.

Them's are the breaks indeed, and I hear you about luck last season regarding failures, it just interested me that Webber has had a number of failures that have stopped him being in the lead, but not slow enough to be too far away and not score good points. The conspiracy aspect was mostly in jest, but I can see how some might choose to think about it.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Ok I'll start with the Toro Rosso boys. I think that there could be potential for them to move up to Red Bull, but let's be honest I think we can all see that they're no Vettel, when he was in the Toro Rosso you could see he was outperforming the car quite often. This just isn't clear with Buemi and Alguersuari especially with how they performed at the start of the year, when they both were fairly bad. Both aren't rookies now and their performances are both pretty similar, Jaime ahead on points but you'd have to say that probably more to do with his failings on Saturday which allows him to conserve more tyres. If I had to call it I'd say Buemi shades Alguersuari, but I couldn't choose one for the RB seat at the moment.

As for Webber he clearly won't ever get a real shot at the world title again. Just look at last year when he had consistently the fastest car with bulletproof reliability and a team mate who lost around 60 points through no fault of his own, possibly even more depending on how you apportion blame for Turkey 2010. All of this doesn't take into account the point increase that Webber recieved from Vettel's unreliability and yet he still finished 14 points behind Vettel, only 2 ahead of Hamilton who was in the 2nd/3rd best car and he had reliability problems (32 points lost) aswell.

However despite all of this he fits the bill perfectly for Red Bull. He's a known quantity, has enough speed to collect solid podiums but not enough to realistically challenge Vettel over the course of a season.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Them's are the breaks indeed...it just interested me that Webber has had a number of failures that have stopped him being in the lead, but not slow enough to be too far away and not score good points. The conspiracy aspect was mostly in jest, but I can see how some might choose to think about it.

I put in a second post right after noting I used breaks instead of brakes and vice-versa in the previous post. Apologies for the typo.

Anyway, I know what you're saying about the Webber problems.

It has to also be said that Webber adapted to the Pirellis less well than Vettel in the earlier races...and he's had a tough time at the start when the lights go out.

For example, he has 3 Poles this year...but never led into the first corner. He's been a poorer starter off the grid and mostly it's down to him (and partly down to the supposedly complex clutch system on the RB7 (which i've written about in the "Mark Webber" thread)).