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Webber urges Red Bull to be united

Mark Webber has urged Red Bull Racing to pull itself together and act as a united force as he and the team bid to recover from their Turkish Grand Prix nightmare

Amid a backlash from fans and the media about the way Webber was singled out by factions of Red Bull Racing as the culprit in the crash with Sebastian Vettel that cost the team victory, the Australian has urged the outfit to take on board the lessons of the weekend.

He has admitted that the team did not handle itself in the best way, but reckons if it can close ranks then there is no reason why it cannot move on swiftly from the controversy of Istanbul.

"People have to remember that we are still a very young team," said Webber, in a video interview on Red Bull Racing's own website. "To take McLaren on week in, week out is not an easy task, but one that Red Bull is hungry for.

"We have proven that we will fight them hard, so it is a feather in our cap on one side, but also on the other side we are still learning. Unfortunately in Turkey we learned in a way that wasn't the best way, but teams like Ferrari and McLaren have had these days.

"They know how tough it can be when you have some adversity. We need to bounce back and be united as a team, and keep going."

The clash between Vettel and Webber remains the main talking point in F1, but the matter has moved on to another level because of the public disagreement among Red Bull Racing chiefs about who was to blame for the accident that handed victory to McLaren.

While team principal Christian Horner believes both Webber and Vettel have to take a share of the blame for the incident, Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko thinks Webber alone was responsible.

His stance, and his decision to go so public in criticising his drivers rather than keeping the matter behind closed doors, has prompted widespread debate about whether the outfit is favouring Vettel - and fans have event bombarded Red Bull's own website with angry comments about the team's lack of support for Webber in public.

Webber himself thinks the team could have dealt with the events of Sunday in a much better way.

"If you look back obviously, after it all happens, you of course want to handle things a lot more differently," he said. "And that it is something we learn as a team. We are in unchartered waters, with both of us leading the championship and both of us at the front in the next race.

"The team, collectively with the drivers, all of us have to learn how to deal with these situations maybe better in the future. That is all we can learn from it."

Despite the setback of the weekend, Webber has taken the positives from the start of the campaign - and especially the strengths of the RB6.

"I like the car, the team have been doing a great job with the car and Sebastian and I are very, very close," he said. "Sometimes it is him and sometimes it is me. I have had a few good races in the last few events.

"Turkey was a close fight, but in general I will keep doing my best, that is all I can do. I like to believe that I try to not leave too much left [over]. I give 100 percent myself because that is what it is about at this level. You want to get the absolute maximum out of every session and every single race; so far it has been going really, really well.

"Here was a bit of a speed hump in our programme, but we've all had tougher days, I've certainly had tougher days in the past, so I will bounce back from this and we will press on."

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