Mark Webber insists that the team-orders issued at the British Grand Prix will be a one-off after discussing the matter with team principal Christian Horner.
The Australian was told to ‘maintain the gap’ after he caught Vettel in the closing stages of the race. Webber decided to ignore the orders and tried to overtake but couldn’t.
The 34-year-old says Horner reassured him the same order would have been issued to Vettel had he been behind Webber.
“We had a chat straight after the race debrief. Christian put his view forward of how the situation built and he came to decision he made, and I put my case forward in how the situation built and we thought that we were both making the right decision, him to make the call for the team’s interest and I was in a situation where I was trying to improve my own position,” remarked Webber.
“We spoke about it, he guaranteed me that it would have been the same situation the other way around if Seb was closing in on me, he would have still shut the race down. It was over pretty quick really.”
Webber says the two are free to race and the situation at Silverstone was an ‘awkward one’.
“If there is a similar situation, it is not often that you are closing in the last few laps, that was the awkward one I think,” he added.
“We are still free to race most of the time – it was an awkward one and it is not often that things like that happen in terms of the time of the race, and up until then we will be racing.”
