05/05/2013
NEWS STORY
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1980 world champion Alan Jones has warned Mark Webber to regard teammate Sebastian Vettel as his enemy, insisting that the German cannot be trusted.
Jones warning, which comes on the back of the incident at Sepang when Vettel ignored team orders to hold station behind his teammate, passing him to take a win which has divided the team, indeed the sport, comes days before the 1980 world champion acts as race steward at the European season opening event in Barcelona.
"Seb has proved he can't be trusted, so from now on Mark must view him as just another enemy," said the ever-feisty Australian, according to the Guardian.
"If Seb didn't like what was going on he shouldn't have signed his agreement with Red Bull in the first place," said the Australian, adding. "I had a similar experience with Carlos Reutemann in 1981."
Jones was referring to the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix when Carlos Reuteman, teammate to the reigning champion, ignored pit signals calling on him to allow Jones by to take the win. When the Argentine driver subsequently attempted to calm the situation within the team and "bury the hatchet" the Australian is said to have replied: "Yeah, in your back".
Looking ahead to the Barcelona race, which in 2012 was won by Pastor Maldonado, the fifth different winner of the opening five races, Jones said: "While I don't think we are going to have as many different winners this year as we had in 2012, there are clearly a number of drivers capable of winning a race.
"In that situation, the title will be won by the most consistent performer. We know that Mark is good enough, and has a good enough car, to perform consistently."