Red Bull says Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are evenly-matched
Red Bull Racing's head of car engineering Paul Monaghan believes that the level of competitiveness at the front of the grid is exaggerating the difference between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber
Webber has come under pressure for failing to match Vettel this season, leaving him 77 points adrift of his championship-leading team-mate.
But Monaghan believes that there has not been much between the two drivers this year.
"When you look at the gaps, they are actually minute," Monaghan said at Thursday's FOTA Fan Forum in Woking. "It's the consequence of such a competitive sport one small mistake can cost you quite a lot."
Monaghan believes that the penalty for a small mistake in qualifying is being heavily punished this year, and that can lead to even bigger gaps between team-mates on Sunday afternoons.
"In the last part of qualifying, you might see that one driver makes a mistake in one corner, and then pays the price for it all the way down the subsequent straight," he said. "That can produce a laptime difference of two tenths.
"All of a sudden that's three places on the grid, and you've got people saying 'what's happening there?' The gaps are surprisingly small, so I wouldn't say that anybody was underperforming.
"The cars are separated by eight metres on the grid, so all of a sudden you can be 36 metres behind your team-mate wondering what on earth has happened.
"In our case, I'm sure Mark will sort Sebastian out at some point during this year, and he probably can't wait to do it at Silverstone. So we'll see what happens."
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