F1: Webber Should Have Let Vettel Past Says Marko

Formula 1

F1: Webber Should Have Let Vettel Past Says Marko

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko says that Mark Webber knew he was slower in Istanbul, and should have let his teammate through...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted May 31, 2010 Istanbul (TUR)

Helmut Marko doesn’t think that McLaren have made a dramatic step forward, and says that the straights simply suited the F-Duct in Turkey. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Red Bull’s Helmut Marko says that Mark Webber knew he was slower than the pursuing Sebastian Vettel in Istanbul, and should have let his teammate through.

Christian Horner told this writer today that just before the accident Webber had radioed the team and asked that Vettel should back off a little, something that would tend to support Marko’s contention that with Hamilton right on his tail, the German couldn’t really reduce the pressure on the leader.

“Mark for whatever reason was slower,” Marko told SPEED.com after the race. “He was getting lap by lap slower, and Vettel was getting faster and was coming under enormous pressure from Hamilton. So if he would have stayed behind Mark, he would have been overtaken. So he had to do something. And Mark knew that he was slower, so he should have let him past.

“We have to talk with all the people involved and make sure it doesn’t happen again, because we still could have been one-two. Until this incident, everything worked perfectly, our team did really well with the pit stop planning and everything.”

Meanwhile Marko made his support for his protégé clear: “It’s unbelievable how unlucky Vettel is. He showed so much speed, and if you have all these incidents it’s unbelievable how strong his morale and commitment still is. To make points in this new points system is the most important thing. And now Vettel has two zeroes.”

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Had Webber not pitted for a new nose – an endplate was missing – he might have been able to keep the pressure on the McLarens as they went into fuel saving mode. But Marko has no regrets about the stop.

“At that stage we didn’t know about their fuel problem. And once you are ahead here, and especially a McLaren is ahead, they are so much quicker on the straights where should we overtake them? Once they are ahead, even if they have a fuel problem, they just go around the corners slow and then on the straights they accelerate.”

Marko doesn’t think that McLaren have made a dramatic step forward, and says that the straights simply suited the F-Duct. But that of course means that the next two races, which are essentially straights and slow corners, will favour McLaren more than Red Bull.

“It’s the long straights here. As soon as there are some long corners, we’re not so worried. I think it will be very difficult for us, Montreal, one of the most difficult circuits. Montreal and Valencia and Monza will be worrying for us.”

“I think there was a few laps where there was a bit of a difference, and it’s just how we manage that, really. He had a bit more for a few laps. That’s why there was a difference on top speed at that point in the race.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter