Red Bull duo agree to disagree on crash
Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel say they have agreed to disagree over the Turkish Grand Prix collision that ended their chances of a one-two finish for Red Bull Racing
Though neither man is prepared to accept full responsibility for the clash, which happened when Vettel tried to overtake Webber for the race lead approaching the final corners, both are adamant that the incident is now completely behind them.
"I'm cool, absolutely fine," said Webber when asked if there was any lingering ill-feeling. "I'm totally over it and ready to go this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting back on the track."
Vettel agreed that the crash was now in the past and that there was no point disputing blame anymore.
"What happened, happened so there's not much more to say," he said. "You can look at it from many different angles and you can't change it now, so looking back I wouldn't have done anything differently.
"What happened was bad for both of us and especially for the team because we gave a present to McLaren, but the most important thing is to move on.
"To be honest, F1 is not about yesterday, it's about tomorrow. I don't want to spend much time talking about what happened. It's important to understand what happened and that's why we met and talked about it."
Webber said he did not think continuing to debate whose actions triggered the crash would help the situation.
"It happened so bloody quickly," he said. "As I said at the time, I was a bit surprised at what happened, but that's how it was.
"Obviously I was disappointed with the consequences. Absolutely. Moving on from there, we can talk as much as we want about it, but it doesn't change anything."
With Vettel running different engine settings - having conserved more fuel - and Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko initially blaming Webber for the crash, there were suggestions that the collision proved the team favoured its young German driver over current championship leader Webber.
But both drivers dismissed this, with Vettel insisting any conspiracy theories were nonsense.
"There have been so many things in the press about engine turning down, turning up, this and that but most of it is not true," he said.
"If you look, all four cars - Mark, myself, Lewis [Hamilton] and Jenson [Button] - we were all of a similar pace and it was quite exceptional to have a race for 40 laps within three or four seconds. Nobody was a second faster than anybody else and at that time I felt that I could go quicker, and as I said I got close enough, tried to pass and didn't work."
Webber has subsequently extended his deal with Red Bull for another year, and said he would not have done so if he felt the team was out to undermine him.
"Look, I'm bloody comfortable in the team, and have been since I arrived," he said. "When Seb arrived there was some nice momentum, a young, new charge and all that sort of stuff, which was good.
"I've just kept my head down and tried to do my job. It's turned out pretty well for me this year, and the team have, to be honest, been great to both of us, and that's why we've a good package. We're pushing each other, and it's been good."
When asked if his new contract guaranteed equality, Webber replied: "Nothing has changed in any of the contracts since I've been here, ever. It's always been straight up. At this stage in my career I would never hang around for another season if I didn't think I was going to get a fair crack, so it's all good."
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