17/07/2010
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Hans-Joachim Stuck has hit out at Red Bull after the team's infamous Silverstone weekend. After Sebastian Vettel's new front wing failed during practice the team elected to give the German the only other development spoiler available. The fact this was fixed to Mark Webber's car at the time triggered an ugly weekend of 'he said, she said' just moments before qualifying.
That Webber went on to dominate the race was, to many, poetic justice. The Australian proclaimed the result "not bad for a number two driver," to a global television audience, while Horner's response doubled Red Bull's PR headache as he suggested Webber might like to finally start smiling.
Writing in his column for TZ newspaper, Stuck slammed the team and the way it handled the situation. "What the team management did in Britain was an absolute outrage," wrote the former Brabham driver.
Now in charge of Volkswagen's motor sport interests Stuck went on to call Christian Horner a 'puppet' and suggest that Helmut Marko, motor sport advisor to Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz, was really in charge of the team. It's a claim Horner denies, telling the Daily Telegraph "there has never been any pressure from Red Bull to favour one driver over the other.
"I didn't have a conversation with Helmut or anyone from Red Bull regarding the decision to give Sebastian the wing. It was purely a technical decision I made with Adrian (Newey)," he claimed.
In his column Stuck went on to suggest that Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost would be better suited to the Red Bull role, and that Mateschitz should clear out the current management team. "Whoever decided to take the new wing away from Webber qualified for his final pension," he wrote. "Mateschitz must respond by putting in a new man in at Red Bull. Tost is in every respect one of the best managers in Formula One."
Another former driver, Jos Verstappen, agreed with Stuck's sentiments in his own column for Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. "Mark felt poorly treated by the team leadership, and I can fully understand his anger," he wrote. "By doing this, the management was asking for trouble.
"I honestly don't know how I would have reacted in Webber's shoes. I would probably have trodden on the wing; if I'm not allowed to use it, then neither can he."
While word from within the team claims the situation has been put behind in the past. Horner even claiming to have had both Webber and Vettel singing on stage at a post-race party, it seems some sections of the media aren't ready to let go just yet.