Red Bull to reduce ‘team orders’

Following the fall out suffered by Red Bull following the Malaysian Grand Prix, Red Bull have come up with a way of avoiding the situation reoccurring.

The aftermath of the last race for Red Bull was ugly, the team might have completed a one-two finish, securing maximum points for the teams constructors championship. But the internal fall-out was clear.

‘Multi-21 Seb’, Mark Webber repeated to his team-mate Sebastian Vettel before the two walked out on to the podium. ‘Multi-21’ before shrugging his shoulders and slamming his drinks bottle down on the table.

It wasn’t just the act of ‘stabbing his team-mate in the back’ as some in the British media referred to it, it was directly disobeying team orders that really showed up Vettel.

The fact that Vettel turned up to China this weekend showing little signs of remorse will not help his image as one of Formula One’s new bad guys.

‘I won’t apologise for winning’ and I’d probably ‘do it again’, were the words that stuck out so firmly during the interviews on Thursday.

So how do Red Bull re-act? Have they disciplined Vettel behind closed doors? Or have they given Vettel ‘protection as usual’ as Webber claimed the team would during the post-race interviews?

Well it would seem the Australian was right all along.

‘I had discussions with Dietrich [Mateschitz, team owner] and we agreed that Red Bull is not a fan of team orders.

‘Therefore we will not impose team orders at the end of a race. However, we expect the drivers to act on the information they have from the team.’ Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told the BBC.

‘[the drivers should] act in the best interests of the team because that is what they are employed to do – not only race for themselves but race and respect the interests of the team’.

So in short, Red Bull have conceded that the break down between their two drivers is pretty much irreparable.

Three-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel is clearly untouchable in the team, while Mark Webber is unlikely to ever help out his team-mate in the future.