10/07/2010
NEWS STORY
While the media seems determined to see hostilities break out within at least one team, there does appear to be some slight cause for concern at Red Bull following today's qualifying session.
Thursday's press conference bordered on the shambolic with the (mainly British) media attempting to discover whether there was trouble with the McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari outfits.
Despite the drivers' assurances that all was well and that the relationships with their teammates were as good as they can ever be - considering that your teammate is the standard by which you are judged - the questions continued.
As the drivers grew ever more weary with the constant barrage, the refusal to accept their answers, it was Jenson Button who played the press at its own game. "We're working very much on our acting careers and they seem to be going very well because we're convincing all of you," he said. "He's going to be James Bond and I'm going to be the villain in the movie, so we're working on those roles."
Forward just two days and while most of the British media gave the official press conference a miss - much as they did in Brazil 2008 - one of the numerous representatives of the BBC and the guy from the Daily Mirror did appear to be on to something.
Following the incident in this morning's practice session when the mountings on the nose of Vettel's nose came loose and the nose dropped to the ground, it was decided to take the new nose off teammate Mark Webber's car and give it to the German.
"Unfortunately we found ourselves with only one front wing with a different specification that had a slightly different characteristic," explained Christian Horner to the TV cameras. "Both drivers tried it on Friday, one (Vettel) had a better preferences for it over the other and it was tried by both again this morning.
"Unfortunately sometimes I have to make a difficult decision," he admitted, "and with only one wing available and the facts we had at hand and basically based on championship decision as the criteria we used, that wing went to Sebastian today."
Cut to the official press conference....
"After Turkey, the team said there was no favouritism one way or the other," said the man from the Beeb. "This afternoon, although Sebastian's wing fell off, it was you, Sebastian, who got the one version of the new front wing. Can you both comment on what you feel about that?"
"I think the team is happy with the result today," replied Webber. While Vettel added: "From the outside, it's sometimes quite difficult to judge what's going on. We know what we're doing, I think."
However, when asked by the man from the Mirror whether the team had shown favouritism towards him, Vettel hit back: "I think that as I tried to explain earlier, if you look at us (drivers), we are different. One probably likes tea, the other likes coffee. In the end, if you look back at the qualifying session, it was extremely tight and I think there wasn't much (between us). In Q1 we were pretty much the same. In Q2 Mark was a bit ahead, I was struggling a bit and in Q3 I was ahead. I don't think there's a black and white answer on the wing. As I said earlier, I was very happy that I could continue with the same kind of wing, because obviously after this morning, we didn't expect that to happen after the failure. We were able to continue."
"But you get both of them," said the reporter. "They're faster and better front wings and you get both of them. Mark doesn't get one and you get the other."
"You are pretty smart if you know that they are faster and better," replied the German. "We try to keep this kind of thing to ourselves as much as we can, with the new parts, if they work or if they don't but it looks like we have a leakage!"
It was a view echoed by Horner. "From the outside, it is often quite difficult to judge what is going on," he told the TV cameras. "We know what we are doing, I think. I don't think it is black and white answer on the wing but I was very happy I could continue with the same kind of wing.
"It's our job to do the best we can as a team and sometimes you have to make difficult decisions," he continued, "and it is the first time we have been in a position where we only have one component. When you have two drivers running at the front there is perhaps a bit more emotion attached to it, but if you take away the emotion and look at the facts, it was the entirely logical thing to do.
"Mark is a competitive guy," he added, "he's pushing hard, nobody likes to be beaten by their team-mate but at the end of the day they both drive for the team. We have given Mark a great opportunity to drive for a front-running team, he's doing a great job, he's driving brilliantly well. Today we had to make a difficult decision but tomorrow I would make the same decision because the team is bigger than any one individual. It was a team decision. The drivers don't specify the car. They never have and they never will.
"Adrian wanted to run the wing and based on the fact it was to be run, I have to make a decision as to which car it should run on. A logical decision, based on championship position but also P3, was it went on this occasion to Sebastian."
Hmmmm!