Mark Webber who spent seven years with Red Bull has some unique insight into how the team ticks and though he acknowledges that the team are struggling to match Ferrari and Mercedes at the moment, warns that they should not be discounted.
The straight talking Aussie said, “Red Bull are as hard on themselves as anyone. They’re a very realistic team. They never dream about results, they work hard, they get the job done. At the moment they’re on the back foot, they know that.”
Truth is this year the RB13 has not delivered the edge that they once enjoyed in the aero department, while the Renault engine clearly lags behind their rivals in the power stakes. Thus both Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen have not had the weapons at their disposal to challenge the pace setters.
Webber, who won nine times with Red Bull, explained, “Whether Max and Daniel can get the product… the thing is, there are individual races that might come into the window, but for the whole campaign now, it’s looking extremely challenging of course. Even a swing a little bit between Mercedes and Ferrari track to track, and Red Bull are still watching this from a distance.”
“They don’t have the base. Reliability-wise, there are a few flaky moments, so this also brings some frustrations. Never, ever count them out, but they’ve got a big challenge ahead.”
Webber and Sebastian Vettel once enjoyed a healthy relationship during their early days at Red Bull, but the rot set in when the pair collided during the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and then broke down irreparably when the German disobeyed team orders at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, in a saga that is etched in F1 legend as the ‘Multi-21’ episode.
But Webber doubts a similar situation will arise between Verstappen and Ricciardo at this stage, “It’s not an issue until they start winning consistently. When you’re fighting for third, fourth, fifth, sixth, doesn’t matter, because you’re both trying to get the team up there.”
“But when you’ve got one more branch on the tree and you’re both trying to land on that branch, that’s an issue. They haven’t been really tested yet. So non-topic at the moment,” he added.
Big Question: Can Red Bull reign in Spain again?
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