Red Bull threw themselves into a team orders row after the British Grand Prix when they ordered Mark Webber, in third, to maintain the gap to Sebastian Vettel, rather than push for second.
The Australian was clearly faster as he steadily caught the championship leader with just three laps remaining.
Webber opted to ignore the demands from the team and attempted to pass Vettel but failed to make the move stick.
Team principal Christian Horner defended the pitwall requests, saying they were the best thing for the team.
“It is a team result,” said Horner. “I can understand Mark’s frustrations but we cannot give away a load of points [if they made contact].
“We did not want to see our drivers in the fence at some time in the last two laps, which is how it would have ended up.”
When asked if that rules Webber out of the championshiop, he replied: “Mark is not out of the Championship race but we could not afford to risk losing points. Mark should be fine with that, he is a team player.”
Webber disagreed. During the FIA press conference the above statement was put to him, he said: “I am not fine with it, no. That is the answer to that.
“Of course I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get a place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I wasn’t going to crash with anyone.
“I try to do my best with the amount of one way conversation I was having – I was trying to do my best to pass the guy in front.”
Discussion about this post