In the round-up: Webber says Red Bull would use team orders in his favour and not just Vettel’s.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Red Bull hand Mark Webber guarantee over team orders (BBC)
“Webber said Red Bull boss Christian Horner had ‘guaranteed me if it was the other way round, if Seb was closing on me, he would have shut the race down’.”
Ecclestone admits paying £27m after ‘threats’ (Daily Telegraph)
“Ecclestone claims that Gribkowsky made false allegations about his relationship with his offshore family trust, Bambino Holdings, adding that although he has ‘never had anything to do with the trust in any shape or form, he [Gribkowsky] threatened that he was going to say that I was running it’.”
Murdoch’s Mini-Me (FT, registration required)
“This could create a teaser for CVC, the private equity business that bought a controlling stake in F1 in 2005. Should it remove the tenacious Mr Ecclestone from the post of chief executive if, heaven forbid, he emerges badly from the case?”
“I’m carrying a tribute on my helmet to those killed and injured in the Mumbai bomb blasts last week.”
Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app
German GP – Conference 1 (FIA)
“Q: (Ralf Bach – Autobild Motorsport) Sebastian, why the hell do you have 80 points more than Mark Webber this year?
Sebastian Vettel: I think I’ve finished in better positions in the races so far.”
Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.
Comment of the day
Electrolite considers what Karun Chandhok needs to do on his F1 race return:
Chandhok cannot afford to finish behind any of the Virgins or HRTs on Sunday. Chances like this after being shoved aside by a team like HRT are few and far to come by. I am extremely glad and hope he does well.
Electrolite
From the forum
Has anyone got a use for Steph’s spare F1 stuff?
Site updates
The race popularity article, part of which was accidentally deleted earlier this week, has now been restored along with all your comments:
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Phillip C’de Baca!
On this day in F1
Louis Rosier won a poorly-attended non-championship race at Zandvoort on this day 60 years ago.
He finished a full lap in front of fellow Talbot driver Philippe Etancelin, with Stirling Moss third in a HWM.
Reigning world champion Giuseppe Farina qualified on pole position, but retired with a broken oil pipe on his Maserati after 46 laps.
Image © Red Bull/Getty images
Cacarella
22nd July 2011, 0:07
Poor, poor, Mark. You don’t suppose he really believes that do you?
Macca (@macca)
22nd July 2011, 0:10
Just more PR crap that the team have told him to spew out.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 8:08
Well, honestly he might.
Just think about it, what are the chances of him being in front like that with Vettel pushing in the last laps of the race :-(
Steph
22nd July 2011, 9:02
As Enigma pointed out to me they did it at Turkey to Seb in 09 for ten or so laps I think.
Hopefully Mark won’t be dominated by Seb again in the first half of the season so Horner’s promise doesn’t have to be tested.
frood
22nd July 2011, 11:01
they didn’t do it at Turkey last year though. i know the mclarens were close too, but still
Fixy (@)
22nd July 2011, 9:32
Shut down – i.e. Mark’s side of the team pack up and leave Mark racing alone and then they shut his car down.
antifia
22nd July 2011, 11:55
What I think Mark means is that Redbull assured him that if he finds himself in the lead of the championship, facing the possible threat of the revived Ferrari and get under pressure from Vettel (80 points behind him) in the end of a race, the team will ask Vettel to hold position.
I, for one, believe they would.
Palle (@palle)
22nd July 2011, 13:26
And if given a team-order like that, why should Vettel obey it? Because Mark did, when he received one;-) I think RBR should just make sure they don’t issue TO in the future – it isn’t good PR. But I expect them to demand their two drivers to give each other room and not create another Turkey 2010 situation.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 14:14
I think Vettel would not have a problem agreeing with that. If only because it would never ever come to that!
Zindon (@zindon)
22nd July 2011, 0:07
Bernie’s house of cards is starting to look a little bit shaky…
electrolite (@electrolite)
22nd July 2011, 0:22
Aha! Awesome. First time for everything :)
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
23rd July 2011, 7:28
*bows in direction of my fellow Collantine Cup racer* Congratulations! :P
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
22nd July 2011, 0:25
Karun’s helmet tribute is a nice gesture – good on him for making it. I hope Force India follows suit.
Dankan
22nd July 2011, 0:28
27m for simply ‘threats’?
Who’s buying this piece of **
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd July 2011, 0:47
It’s called extortion. And it does actually sound like a fairly reasonable explanation – Gribkowsky held the sale of the sport hostage by threatening to report Ecclestone to the government for tax evasion.
However, I see that you’ve already judged Ecclestone guilty because he’s Ecclestone. Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”? Or has that changed to “guilty until proven dead”?
David BR
22nd July 2011, 1:26
You mean like you’ve just judged Gribkowsky guilty?
Just observing, no judgment of my own intended.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd July 2011, 1:32
It’s not a judgement. It’s simply me putting the article in my own words to demonstrate how the extortion would have worked. I haven’t actually been following the case myself, so I don’t know too much about it.
Macca (@macca)
22nd July 2011, 2:08
So…judging.
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd July 2011, 2:41
No, if it was judging, it would be me saying “Gribkowsky is guilty”, which I clearly did not say.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 8:12
Guys, PM is right here. He just wrote it
That is not saying anything about what is true or not.
Certainly Bernie would not have been happy to have to face distrust from the tax police during the process of establishing Bambino and juggling all the CVC/FOM companies around. It would have caused delays and cost a lot of lawyer money to him.
Leon
22nd July 2011, 21:05
Yeah right…smoke….fire…..without ( rearrange words to fit event )….
History of the character involved…irrelevant…mmmmmm ?
Million Pound bungs to political parties to ‘persuade’ them to modify a change in the law applying to tobacco advertising….mmmmm
No, never happen would it ?
How stupid even to imagine such an act by BCE.
drezone
22nd July 2011, 0:35
The fact that Red Bull are trying to justify not favouring Vettel for the last 2 years and Webber covering it up for them all the time, just goes to show they have a guilty conscious. I think the question about favouritism in red bull speaks for itself. Webber unfortunately has no other options in this stage of his career.
Kelly (@kelly)
22nd July 2011, 0:46
Well Renault have said they are keen. Having said that a Red Bull is better than any other car at the moment even if it means playing second fiddle to Vettel.
Mike
22nd July 2011, 6:57
I’m quite sure Webber could get a good drive if he wanted to. He’s one of the stronger drivers in the field at the moment.
F1fan55
22nd July 2011, 7:30
Yeah I agree, but Red Bull seem the only place for him at the moment…
Mike Griffin
22nd July 2011, 0:44
I think Horner would be more likely to shut down Webber’s CAR if he could, than shut down the race to protect his position.
Any truth to what Will Buxton posted last night on Twitter?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd July 2011, 0:56
What’s the issue?
Calum (@calum)
22nd July 2011, 1:04
At 7pm he tweeted:
10 teams breaking the rules. HRT and Lotus are legal.
He then contacted Virgin, who replied saying they weren’t breaking the specific rule* in question.
*It’s all about driver uniforms! No joke, but 9 teams are running illegal overalls!
David-A (@david-a)
22nd July 2011, 1:15
I heard that Colin Kolles is launching an investigation into the legality of the air the other teams breathe :D
Calum (@calum)
22nd July 2011, 4:36
F1 PR talk runs similar to the Valencia spec diffusers. ;)
Mike
22nd July 2011, 6:59
So it’s ok for the other teams to break the rules?
hawkfist
22nd July 2011, 1:00
What’s the FIA embroidered logo stink about? Saw comments about it but never saw the actual story, was expecting it to be in the roundup.
Mike Griffin
22nd July 2011, 1:37
There was never a story posted anywhere really. Will Buxton announced it on Twitter but no journalist seemed to care enough to turn it into a story, which I found mind-boggling!
Anywhere, there is an FIA patch the drivers are meant to have embroidered on the neck of the overalls, and 18 drivers didn’t have it as of Thursday evening. It should be sorted by FP1 but still, an amazingly anal rule, and ridiculous actions by the FIA, as ever.
Robyn
22nd July 2011, 2:07
Buxton said it was because the FIA thing was screen printed rather than embroidered on the jumpsuits?! Pretty hilarious…
Mike Griffin
22nd July 2011, 4:11
Only in Formula One!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
22nd July 2011, 1:06
Keith, nice job including that Vettel question from the press conference. That was my favorite response of the day. I’m a little puzzled why the reporter worded his question the way he did though.
Julian (@julian)
22nd July 2011, 8:12
Yeah. No disrespect to Electrolite, but I’m pretty sure Vettel should get comment of the day! :P
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 8:15
I guess its a bit to do with them being German. Also liked the question and the cheekily evasive answer by Vettel. In fact the whole Press conference was pretty nice this time.
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
23rd July 2011, 7:33
Yes, Vettel is getting increasingly fluent in English to the stage that he’s starting to out-wit people. What else can he do? 8-O
Tom11 (@tom11)
22nd July 2011, 2:29
Christ Mark STOP IT.
This was the same garbage as last year “They would give me the front wing if I was higher in the points”
“If I was leading they would favor me”
They never did and they never would.
AJ
22nd July 2011, 4:15
Yeah but all said and done, Webber is slower than Vettel.
And if Vettel’s removed from the equation, Webber would still not win the championship…
I was annoyed at the Team Orders deployed by RB, but not cause I felt sorry for Webber, only cause it would put a dent in Vettel’s reputation.
But that still doesn’t make Webber any better. Apart from Silverstone last year and this year, I don’t see how Webber has really been disadvantaged?
Icthyes (@icthyes)
22nd July 2011, 8:38
Mark is second in the World Championship, so um yeah, removing Vettel might just have that result, who knows?
Prisoner Monkeys (@prisoner-monkeys)
22nd July 2011, 5:08
I had to laugh at Vettel’s answer in the press conference. Never let it be said that he does not have a sense of humour – I saw him do an impersonation of Nigel Mansell on Top Gear, and it was similarly hilarious.
Dane
22nd July 2011, 5:21
hahaha, he’s a funny guy
Ritesh (@rits)
22nd July 2011, 12:35
That Top Gear interview was hilarious indeed, he’s turning out to be a very likeable chap. That “..you mean some say” thing was pretty funny too.
He isn’t doing anything wrong, so nothing against him. The only issue I have is when people claim he’s the best driver or that he’s simply faster than everyone else.
David A
22nd July 2011, 15:23
I’d say he’s certainly one of the best (with Alonso and Hamilton).
damonsmedley (@damonsmedley)
23rd July 2011, 7:34
Agreed.
Stephen Jones (@aus_steve)
22nd July 2011, 7:15
haha, vettel you seem funnier every time you say something..
bosyber
22nd July 2011, 7:31
You know, Webber might be right about Horner wanting to do the same for him as for Vettel. And at the same time, it’s besides the point. In Singapore Horner just about admitted he didn’t like it either and it certainly wasn’t his idea to do those orders, but it did happen, because dr. Marko wouldn’t have it otherwise. And it will happen again like that, but not with the roles reversed.
I think Webber knows it, but is telling himself that he anyway needs to find a way to beat Vettel on speed and get some great races in, or it is irrelevant what happens in those last few laps.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 8:18
Well honestly, Mark first has to get himself in a position to let Horner even think about it, and how big is the chance of that happening this year?
Steph
22nd July 2011, 9:11
And I thought I was hard about Mark this year :P Just kidding Bas. I really agree but he does seem to be getting better on the Pirelli’s every passing weekend.
BasCB (@bascb)
22nd July 2011, 11:15
He sure does, he got in front in FP1 again.
maxthecat
22nd July 2011, 11:46
Two words ……..
Yeah Right
Alistair
22nd July 2011, 23:15
Mark seems to have forgotten Turkey last year. Who was leading that? Who didn’t use team orders….
RBR is Vettel’s team in a way that only finds comparison with Schumi at Ferrari; but, even then, Schumi didn’t nab Rubens’s front-wing after destroying his own.