• Red Bull news

'We need to be united as a team' - Webber

ESPNF1 Staff
June 1, 2010 « Renault claims to be level with Mercedes | »

Mark Webber has urged Red Bull to learn from its experiences in Turkey and remain united as the battle with McLaren heats up.

Webber collided with team-mate Sebastian Vettel while fighting for the lead of the Turkish Grand Prix, resulting in considerable friction between the drivers after the race. Red Bull's advisor Helmut Marko, who has overseen much of Vettel's progress in the junior ranks, came out in favour of his protégé and blamed Webber for not leaving enough space.

In the aftermath there were several reports claiming "civil war" had broken out at Red Bull, but Webber has put the tensions down to the team's inexperience and said it would quickly learn from the incident and move on.

"If you look back after it has all happened, you of course want to handle things a whole lot differently," he said in a video on Red Bull's website. "We are in uncharted waters with both of us leading the championship and both of us at the front in the race. The team, collectively with the drivers, has to learn what to do in these sorts of situations, maybe better in the future. That's all we can probably learn from it."

He added that it was crucial that Red Bull remained united as it faced a very serious threat from more established teams like McLaren.

"People have to remember that we are a very young team," he said. "To take McLaren on week-in-week-out is not an easy task, but one that Red Bull is hungry for and we've proven that we will fight them hard. So it's a feather in our cap on one side but on the other side we are still learning. Unfortunately in Turkey I think we learnt in a way that wasn't the best way, but teams like Ferrari and McLaren have had these days and they know how tough it can be when you have some adversity. We need to bounce back and be united as a team, and keep going."

He said that he would personally deal with the incident by continuing to push as hard as possible.

"I'll just keep doing my best, that's all I can do. I like to believe that I try not to leave too much left and give 100% from myself. That's what it is about at this level, to get the absolute maximum out of every session and every single race. So far it's been going really well, obviously Turkey was a bit of a speed hump in our programme, but we've all had tougher days. I certainly have had tougher days in the past so I will bounce back from this and we press on.

"Both McLaren drivers and Fernando [Alonso] are still there [challenging us]. Ferrari had a tough day in Turkey but there are still hundreds of points to go and I'm just keeping my feet on the ground and thinking about Canada now. We need to work on the top speed of the car - whether it's with the F-duct or working with the aerodynamics - so that we are quicker at some other venues coming up in the championship."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close