• United States Grand Prix

Reliability a worry for Red Bull admits Webber

ESPN Staff
November 18, 2012 « Massa grid penalty puts Alonso on clean side of grid | Hamilton delighted to beat Vettel »
Mark Webber is shown the way home after his retirement © Getty Images
Enlarge
Related Links

Mark Webber admitted his retirement with alternator failure after 17 laps of the US Grand Prix would add to the ongoing worries over reliability within the Red Bull team.

But for those issues Sebastian Vettel would have already secured his third drivers' championship and team boss Adrian Newey admitted the alternator issue was like "a ticking time bomb ... you never know when it will strike".

Webber was in third in Austin when his Red Bull coasted to the side of the track. "It was the alternator ultimately in the end," he said. "So we lost the batteries on the car, we lost KERS, we lost our gearbox sync.

"The laps before I retired I was in trouble and we knew it was a long way home from there. It's disappointing to lose a very good result here today for myself and the team, and for sure there are more nerves about our reliability."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
ESPN Staff Close