Mark Webber still has the fastest car in Formula One and every chance of winning the championship, even after making a rare error and losing the overall lead to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in South Korea.
The no-nonsense Australian could thank his lucky stars, although his Red Bull employers would not see it that way, for the abrupt engine failure that prevented teammate Sebastian Vettel from winning and taking an 11-point lead instead.
Had that happened, Webber might have faced the prospect of having to play second fiddle to the young German in the last two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Instead, with Vettel 25 points behind Alonso and just 50 remaining to be won, Red Bull will now have to weigh up whether to load all their efforts onto Webber’s bandwagon. The Australian is 11 points off the lead, 14 clear of Vettel.
“I haven’t had time to look at all the mathematics and scenarios. It’s something that obviously we will look at pretty closely between now and Brazil,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said.
“Obviously the objective for both of them is to be ahead of Fernando and (McLaren’s) Lewis (Hamilton).”
Ferrari have made abundantly clear since the German Grand Prix in July, when they controversially invoked banned “team orders” to ensure Alonso won and not Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa, that the Spaniard is their main man.
McLaren are likely to have a similar focus on Hamilton, 21 points behind Alonso, after their world champion Jenson Button saw his hopes effectively disappear in Yeongam.
With Ferrari and McLaren likely to put all their money on the one favoured contender, Red Bull might be shooting themselves in the foot if they allowed Vettel to beat Webber should the pair be heading for another one-two finish.
Formula One history has plenty of examples of evenly-matched teammates taking points off each other and allowing another rival to cash in and run off with the main prize.
Webber won in Brazil last year by a pretty comfortable margin while Vettel led him in a dominant one-two in Abu Dhabi.
Alonso may have won more races (five) than any other driver and be the current leader but his former McLaren teammate Hamilton still did not see him as the favourite. “I don’t think he’s the guy to aim for,” the 2008 world champion said.
“I think the Red Bulls have still got the fastest car, I think Fernando’s still got the second fastest car and I’ve got the third. It’s not quick enough. They’ve got more downforce than us at the moment,” he added.
Vettel has had nine pole positions, and Red Bull 15 in 17 races, but the German has converted that domination into victory on only three occasions. Webber has won four times.
The Australian made clear earlier in the season that he wanted Red Bull to get all their efforts behind him and he is sure to make that point even more forcibly now.
“Today didn’t help me with the championship but I can still win it,” he said after only his second non-finish of the year and Horner agreed there was still everything to play for.
