Red Bull Racing’s decision to tell Mark Webber not to attack Sebastian Vettel in the closing laps at Silverstone has inevitably caused some controversy, even though team orders are now legal again.
Christian Horner made it clear after the race that he wasn’t happy that the Aussie had ignored instructions from his engineer. In the end Horner had to intervene personally, saying ‘Mark, you need to maintain the gap.’ Afterwards he insisted that he’d made the right call.
“About four laps from the end we felt it had gone far enough now,” said Horner. “From a team point of view, a big pool of points on the table today, and it made absolutely no sense to risk seeing both cars in the fence. So from a team perspective at that point we said OK, that’s enough. It’s time to consolidate those points.
“At the end of the day the team is the biggest thing, no individual is bigger than the team. I can understand Mark’s frustration in that, but had it been the other way around, it would have been exactly the same.
“It happened a couple of years ago in Turkey, where exactly the same happened with Sebastian. It makes no sense from a team point of view to risk both of your cars, and it was obvious that neither was going to concede.
“As we saw with Massa and Hamilton at the last corner, who very nearly made contact, it made absolutely no sense from a team point of view to allow them to continue to fight over those last couple of laps. Mark obviously chose to ignore that, and didn’t make the pass in any event. That is the team’s position.”
Horner stressed that the constructors’ points were a priority.
“At the end of the day, the team championship is every bit as important as the drivers’ championship to us. And we risked giving away 33 points today in the last three laps by allowing our drivers to fight it out.
“As we have seen previously, that can have dire consequences. We said, OK, we’ve allowed them to race up until that point and, with three laps to go, rather than risk both of them being in the fence, it was the right decision. And as a team it was absolutely the right decision.
“I can understand that sometimes a driver will be frustrated with an instruction, but my responsibility is that a team optimises its results. And there would have been absolutely no benefit in both cars coming back in a tow truck today if they had got together.”
Horner denied that Webber was being held back in any way: “If you look we also gave Mark an undercut at both the first two stops. We didn’t stop them racing each other at the start. There comes in a point in a race with two or three laps to go, when you’ve got a lot of points, both cars are on the podium, it would be absolute stupidity to allow them to race. We saw it get very, very close between the two of them, and we would have looked pretty stupid if they’d have both ended up in the fence.
“I can understand Mark being frustrated, but at the end of the day he drives for a team. We all work for the team, no individual is bigger than the team, and the most important thing is optimising the team’s results.”
Adam Cooper F1 
He is absolutely right, if they would have collided the press would be screaming it was stupid to let them race. Red Bull Racing can’t do anything right in this respect.
“It’s part of the Red Bull ethics to allow our drivers to race, and that’s what we’ve done, as I believe McLaren allow their drivers to do likewise. That was a very clear team instruction today that handed the race win from one driver to another. It’s wrong that the drivers weren’t allowed to compete with each other.”
– Christian Horner, July 27 2010
“it would be absolute stupidity to allow them to race”
– Christian Horner, July 10 2011
Source: https://adamcooperf1.com/2010/07/27/christian-horner-what-was-done-was-very-blatant/
No issue except Horner can never again criticize anyone for issuing team orders.
Last year he declared “not bad for a second driver”. Few agreed and even fewer agree now. If this were Star Trek he’d be wearing a red t-shirt!
You can call foul on pretty much anything Christian Horner has to say about what he and his team did today. Last year in Germany he described team orders as ‘wrong for the sport’ and said ‘we let our drivers race’
He also implied that because Massa was still mathematically in the championship he should have been allowed to race with Alonso.
Here’s the interview with the BBC last year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV36FVWLXHI
The article on team orders was removed from the regulations because it was farcically unenforceable, not because the FIA had suddenly decided it was ok for teams to fix the results of their world championship races and good on Webber for ignoring his team.
There is also the fact that Mateschitz said before Abu Dhabi last season that Red Bull would never use team orders in the championship race, apparently pointed out to Horner by an Italian journalist according to Andrew Benson.
The sporting side of the Red Bull brand is primarily focused on extreme, risk taking sports. Apparently Horner doesn’t subscribe to that brand direction…
I actually think Christian was referring to Turkey 2009, where Mark was 2nd and Sebastian finished 3rd. Sebastian was told to “save your car, Mark is faster”.
It wouldn’t happen the other way around – we all know that.
Horner was in fact referring to Turkey 2009, not the debacle last year (re your note in brackets).
You are probably right, I’ll fix that, thanks
Webber proved to have a stronger car set up and pit/tire strategy in yesterday’s race as we all saw from a slightly struggling vettel in the final few laps of silverstone. I would have preferred to have seen one or both of them on the grass than to have priority orders issued.
However, I say this as a fan of the sport not as a team boss, and while it’s controversial, it’s only because us, as fans of racing, make it so.
As an Australian, and Webber fan, it would have been fantastic to see him get a chance for a final dig at it, but unlike last year where the was ‘supposedly’ no #1 & #2 driver, this year Mark is recognized as #2, and if he is not happy with that, there’s plenty of other drivers who would be.
Team orders were not allowed last season. This year they are. What Horner was referring to last year was not making a sensible, logical call like he did today, It was about having cars swap position for no reason other than to favor one driver.
Webber needs to remember who owns the car he drives and who is in charge of the team. Can you imagine what would happen if athletes in other team sports decided to ignore the coaching staff because they didn’t like what they were being told? Totally unacceptable.
What a farce! Red Bull Racing , more like Red Vettel Racing. IF I want to see a procession I’ll go watch the local town parade at Xmas time. Absolute joke. Its racing not bloody tiddlywinks. The fans pay good money to see drivers race to the end of the race not watch a staged fixed result. Horner is a hypocrite. RBR is miles in front in the WDC and WCC so let them bloody race!!
Why must it have been Mark that was told to ‘do the team thing’? Why not tell Seb not to bother defending his position as Mark was way faster? If it’s purely about the team then what’s the difference? why is one more appropriate than the other? Horner is right though… they may have ended up in the wall, but that’s only because Vettel is pathetic under pressure and is odds on to do something really stupid in that situation. Basically Seb is handed the position because he sucks at actually racing. (and hypocritically Seb would have ignored such a message ..or started crying over the radio or something) Red Bull cannot escape the gutless favoritism here. Personally I think they’re just using Mark to hold up other cars… there’s no way he has equal backing at his disposal. It’s pretty disgraceful as the team wouldn’t be what it is without him.
Absolute hypocrisy from Horner, unsurprisingly. Yes, the circumstances and even the request (order?) itself were both very different, but when you say “It’s wrong that the drivers weren’t allowed to compete with each other” you can’t later come back and change your mind, regardless of the rule status.
I believe less and less of what the man actually says, which is disappointing, because he’s clearly extremely good at what he does.
I can understand not wanting to lose those points, but surely when mark is 1 1/2 seconds faster a lap any team order should have gone to Vettel. Although I very much doubt he would have listened either.
Judging from the body language at the end of the race, Webber will be driving for Ferrari next year!
Why do you think he’d want to drive as the second driver for the ultimate “team orders” team?
It was instructive that Horner claimed that he didn’t want them to “put each other in the fence”. Is he saying he doesn’t trust them? Can you imagine Whitmarsh saying that about Lewis and Jenson? Strange choice of words given the praise he always reserves for them both.
Reading between the lines of Horner’s interview with the BBC immediately after the race, it was clear that the decision wasn’t made by him and that he felt a little uncomfortable being held to account for it. Makes you wonder if the poor publicity from this will see Mateschitz have a quiet word with Marko…
Incidentally James Allen makes a good point about Red Bull losing the goodwill they generated late last season, in the context of Vettel winning the championship again this year: “[Vettel] should be allowed to race, because the downside of acting as Red Bull have done here is that they diminish his achievement by making it look manipulated and have needlessly undermined a set of values that they worked hard and took huge risks last season to establish.”
I don’t think its hypocritical for a team principal to be against team orders when team orders were against the regulations, and to be in favor of them when they are allowed. What I do have a problem with is that ‘letting our drivers race’ is supposedly was an essential component to the Red Bull team spirit that set them apart from the old guard teams. It’s not only disrespectful to Webber to be told not to pass when his team mate is so far ahead in the points, it is also rather insulting to Vettel that his team princple isn’t confident that he can be passed by his team-mate without incident. Team orders happen all the time and in general I understand they’re necessary to carry out a winning strategy. But the trouble me when I see a driver having his moment taken from him and handed to another this I think often does more harm than good. Felipe Massa’s potential win last year would have also been a great personal victory after recovering from his head injury. In that case the team orders harmed the team not only by the blatant way they were implimented but also by the way it demoralized Massa. I can only imagine what he must have thought as the same people who told him to let Alonso past, then threw his sacrifice away on the last race of the season.