F1: Webber - You’ve Got To Take Your Hat Off To Vettel

Formula 1

F1: Webber - You’ve Got To Take Your Hat Off To Vettel

Mark Webber commends Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel on winning another title...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 27, 2012 Sao Paulo (BRA)

Mark Webber won twice in 2012. (Photo: Getty Images)

Mark Webber has praised teammate Sebastian Vettel for winning his third straight title in Brazil.

The pair hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye, and Webber has always played down suggestions that he could help Vettel’s title challenge.

“I think he’s enjoying a pretty decent time now, he’s on his own really in some ways,” said the Aussie. “Obviously he’s the youngest ever triple World Champion, so you’ve got to take your hat off to him.

“We had a good chat before the race to each other. Obviously I’m happy that it stays in the team.”

Regarding his own race in Brazil, where Webber finished fourth, he said: “I don’t think the pace was too bad. I think we got probably what we could have out of today. It was a good call to go to inters when we did.

“It was difficult to get the temperature into the tires, and then it was quite wet at the end even for inters. I think that’s why Paul [Di Resta] dropped it in the last sector; there was a lot of standing water there.”

Looking back at the season, Webber admitted he could have achieved more.

“It’s gone fast, a lot of different winners as we know, a little bit up and down, a lot of crashes, a couple of nice wins for myself,” he said. “I would have liked to have got more out of it, and we saw how tight it was: obviously no one running away in terms of victories.

“But consistency was important. We didn’t quite have enough of that. I’m not looking forward to next year yet. I’ll have a break, and then we’ll recharge for ’13.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.