To be honest (and I'm no Vettel fan) but team orders in the second race of the season is a bit soft. It's good to see team "mates" (I'll use the term mates but I'm sure they're not anymore) racing. Mercedes should have let Nicco go past, the engineering team should pay for it's errors and suffer accordingly. Equally Webber shoul dhave been told to defend against Vettel but if he gets past well it's racing. If Webber really is as quick as Vettel then he should have chased him back down and put pressure on him in both DRS zones and smart use of kers. Webber doesn't have the consistancy and Vettel wants to be Schumacher and probably will. It was some class driving that got him past his team mate,who showed great control not to force him into a concrete wall (as I'm sure many people would have done) and a good specticle for the fans which is the most important part! As the fans make the sport.
However, I do feel sorry for Mark, he'sgoing to end up with a Coulthard / Massa / Barrichello career. A massivly talented guy over shadowed by a truely brillant world class driver.

Well said Muzzie.

I wouldn't have had a problem if it was a fair fight between Vettel and Webber, but it wasn't. Webber was told to turn his engine down and that they would hold station to the end. Then Vettel stabbed him in the back! And Vettel was lucky to have been so close to Webber anyway at that stage of the race. Vettel was over 4 seconds behind Webber until they pitted Vettel a lap before Webber which gave him the undercut and effectively nullified Webber's lead. Fair enough they did that to cover Hamilton who had just pitted, but it destroyed Webber's advantage (and if the roles had been reversed, I doubt Webber would've been given that opportunity).

Webber was robbed today!

Unfortunately F1 is a team sport. When the team chooses to slow a lead driver, to ensure that both their cars make it home, there will probably be an agreement that the other team driver will not seek to take advantage of that instruction, epecially if there is no threat to the team.

Vettel, being an employee, is subject to his employers rules and wishes. Today he chose to ignore their instructions saying he didn't understand. The team did a really good job of trying to play down what went on but it is a little damaging to their reputation. Thing is when you gift a young man with three world championships maybe you have created someone who now thinks he is bigger than the team.... Could be a case of reap what you sow Red Bull.

Vettel is from the Schumacher/Mansell 'win at all costs' school; Webber is from the Hill/Button 'gentleman sportsman' school.

Like it or not they play to different rules.

But irrespective of their personal views, they should obey the people who pay them, or walk.

Well Vettel must have had a right bollocking. He looked like he was almost going to cry on this mornings news clips.

Vettel's apology was as half-arsed as it's possible to get. It was like my 14-year-old stepson apologising to his brother. Any "bollocking" he'll get from the team he'll know is for the media. I think Christian Horner was genuinely angry and frustrated at Vettel, but he is also a prodigious talent; unfortunately, he has (in my opinion) shed his initial rather engaging delight at being in such a fantastic position in life in favour of a deeply unattractive air of entitlement: towards his colleagues both within Red Bull and in F1 generally. RBR are in the sport to win and Vettel will continue to deliver Championships for as long as the car is up to the job (I'm not saying his success is only due to the genius of Newey - but it does help) and until the new wunderkind comes along to dethrone him. If the price of that success is that he chews up and spits out team-mates and rides roughshod over gentlemen's agreements, then I think they'll take it and no amount of gritted-teeth apologies should leave anyone in any doubt - he'd do it again tomorrow and the next day.

It's distasteful and disappointing (just like the entirely hateful Dr Marko's trashing of his driver in Red Bull's own in-house magazine), but Webber knows it as well as anyone. Where it may come back and bite Vettel in the bum is when he needs another favour from Webber for his own (rather than RBR's) Championship hopes. Webber will always take one for the team (until the day he leaves - which may come a bit sooner now), because he is a sportsman, as pointed out above.

On the other hand, my opinion of Lewis Hamilton (who isn't averse to a little self-important petulance) rose with his open admission that his team-mate was faster and deserved the podium place. Rosberg will still be hurting, but a fair bit less than Webber, I'd guess.

Very interesting to see how it develops.

Unlucky once again for Button - but I hope the media spares us the whole "McLaren are rubbish at pit stops" line; they have been consistently as good as (and faster than) the other teams for some time. Priceless to see Hamilton stop there!

There's an interesting clip here.
BBC Video
It looks like Webber is holding position well, and then around 1:15 in he lifts off rather than carrying on the fight.

His apparent frustration at the end was with the team as well as Vettel. It seemed that he thought the team wanted Vettel to pass.

He dropped off as he was busy giving Vetel the bird, which they laughably pixelated out on SKy

It wouldn't be the first time that certain sections within Red Bull had given Webber a "like it or lump it" option in favour of Vettel. His comments about protection from the team were clearly from a fair amount of pent-up anger and frustration.

Still let's not feel too sorry for him, he earns millions and gets to drive fast cars for a living. It does'nt get much better than that

To be honest I'd have done the same, those points could make him world champion again at the end of the season. They also mean double since his biggest rival lost his nose!

His apologies were pretty funny TBH, "I didn't understand" I'm sure in his mind it was more like "why won't the team let me past this idiot, I am S.V. I am Redbull". I hope this puts fire in Mark's belly and makes him even more determined to beat him!

I think very many people - certainly top, competitive sportsmen - would have done the same as Vettel. What makes it unpalatable is that it wasn't a fair race; he took unfair advantage of Webber's reasonable assumption that there would be no further racing, so essentially he cheated. And if he keeps behaving in that way, it might begin to hurt Red bull's image with their sponsors. and then we might see real pressure for a change in behaviour. But I doubt it...

I think RedBull will have to be seen to act, otherwise they'll be seen as weak.

Its pretty certain that if the situation was reversed, Mark would be getting a public dressing down. Can you imagine what would have happened if Mark was leading and was told to yield to Vettel, but then refused and went on to win?

If RB don't take action, it will simply confirm many of Mark's comments that the two drivers don't have equal standing AND that Horner's denials of inequality were lies.

Other than the race result, Mark is the big winner here, as either Vettel will get a slap, or the team will be proven to be biased (which is what Mark has always said)

It may spoil their image BUT it gives extra news coverage and air time to images of the branded cars and Seb.

I agree it's very unsporting but he didn't actually cheat - there is nothing in teh rules about not overtaking / breaking team orders.

As someone pointed out, Horner didn't expressly tell Vettel not to overtake or to give the place back, so he hasn't officially broken any team order, just an informal agreement. Still sucks to me.

IMO, the tone of Horner's voice when he said over the radio, "this is getting silly, Seb" wasn't one of a team principle in control of his team. He might well have said, "please do what we ask Seb, and please don't be upset with us, we'll let you win the next race. Promise."

By contrast, when asked repeatedly by Nico to get Lewis to pull over, Ross Brawn issued a sharp, concise, "Negative"

Makes me wonder how much leverage Vettel really has over the team and whether he'll turn into an Alonso.

I'm sure there's double-standard heirachy in most teams where its accepted there's a "lead" driver and a support - ferrari being a prime example....I feel for Webber as he seems an honourable man so at least he has that to go with his £££millions

I think it's been clear in the past that Vettel is Helmut Marko's golden boy so, in addition to the benefit of being a very good driver, he knows he's got the support of the effective top brass.

I imagine the other teams will be extremely happy to see the splits appearing in Red Bull as until now they have certainly acted as a proper team but now that time may be over.

Many people have mentioned Webber's tough line in the Brazilian GP last year (when he made Vettel fight to get past, even though the WDC was at stake), saying he can dish it out but he can't take it, but I think whenever the team has said it's ok to race, he's been up for it. Yesterday was different.
Although Red Bull's management has been made to look weak, Vettel and Newey are the two factors delivering World Championships. Everything else (at the moment) is expendable, so I don't anticipate much more action or criticism heading Vettel's way.

As for Mark Webber, he should perhaps have gone to Ferrari to perform the same role for Alonso - at least it would be transparent (Fernando is faster than you). I really don't know where he'd go that offered him the genuine chance to win races; perhaps he's mature enough to take his millions and do other things with his life rather than driving for an also-ran team taking a pay-cheque but winning nothing - he's still a young man and has plenty of other interests...

Yep. My guess is that RBR will release a statement in a few days saying it's been dealt with internally and they'll just wait for it to go away.

I think webber would do well at McLaren, Button would make a very good team mate for him and I reckon his time at Redbull could help point their boat in the right direction.

Ferrari have always been a one man show with a back up driver, it's their way. I'm not sure why that is a bad thing? No one ever prevented the 2nd man from driving hard and getting second place in every race, hell if Alonso won the WDC and Massa came second everyone would know that Massa was the better driver.

As for "turning into an Alonso" - the guy was offered the money to do a role, to be the best you have to push for it, you can't let a few points get away to save someones feelings that's the sort of shit that makes you an also ran, on the world stage it's not the taking part it's the winning and proving yourself that counts.

Having spewed all that out - if Redbull want to be a team and not a Ferrari then they need to decide what to do, let Vettel walk all over them and let Mark leave or tell Sebastian straight. Lets face it, where's he going to go if he doesn't like it? The other top teams all have (except McLaren) at least one giant ego already......

Spot on Skinflint, spot on.

Alesi and Berger?

Ah yes the 80's, a time of frivolous expendature massive engines, massive power and when boys could race! I shall sit correct and place my comment as recent history.

Alesi only won a single GP! To be fair neither consistently set the world alight, just showed flashes of brilliance which burned briefly.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/formula-one-launches-race-unfixing-probe-2013032663802

I think we should try to decide who is the most selfish F1 team mate of all time?
My vote might be for Alain Prost but I haven't checked out the full options yet.