Red Bull boss fuming at Webber's start problems

[John S]

Nice to be so concerned now Mark is out of title race & leaving. 

Red Bull says it must get to the bottom of Mark Webber's ongoing start problems after seeing them cost the Australian another strong result in Belgium.

Webber's campaign has been blighted by a series of poor starts and, at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday, his afternoon was hampered when he had another poor getaway from third on the grid.

Christian Horner, the Red Bull team boss, says the clutch issues are inexcusable and highlight a potential chink in the team's armour that could prove costly as it bids to seal a fourth consecutive world championship title.

"We approach each race as they come, we try to get the best out of the car, we keep pushing in all areas - but there are things we need to improve," said Horner.

"We particularly need to address the start issue with Mark, and have to get on top of that. It has cost us too many points so far."

Horner said that Webber's poor start in Belgium was down to the clutch not working as expected.

Once Webber had dropped down the order there was very little he could do to recover.

"We had a clutch that under delivered and created a horrible start for Mark," explained Horner.

"We could see on the formation lap that the clutch did not appear to be performing as it should. Adjustments were made on the formation lap but the clutch has not delivered as it should have done at the start.

"That compromised him into the first turn and then you are on the back foot from there.

UKEurosport.yahoo.com, Today.

[Scott]

HA!  So right.  Ok, Christian, just to fill you in, Mark's been having starting issues for oh, about 2 years now.  You only notice it now??   

[Willy]

Very good point.
Where was the concern about Marks lack of pace before. Mark has been fairly consistent in good quali pace but poor race starts and results. This is not a RBR thing as this has occurred since Jaguar as well.

Maybe this is just to give the impression that RBR are a caring team who hold both drivers in high regard. This smokescreen would be a help to lure a top level driver to Mark's soon to be cool seat.

As if....

 

[Scott]

Mark's race pace over the past couple of years was generally pretty good, except when he had DRS problems, which was, I don't know, every other race or so?

[F1fanaticBD]

Mark's race pace over the past couple of years was generally pretty good, except when he had DRS problems, which was, I don't know, every other race or so?

Ahh Scott you forgot to mention KERS, which spell CURSE for Mark. Everything that works for Vettel, breaks for Mark. And as you are looking for replacement of Mark, now you are concern about his starts. But for his defence, Mercedes is really breathing in the neck of constructors champion. And the way Mercedes are performing, they must work on Mark's car as well. As most of the spotlight have been on Vettel/Alonso/Kimi, but Mercedes has slowly crept itself nearly to snatch the title, if Mark continues to fail to beat Mercedes. Over the years Red Bull didn't have to worry about this, but now they are forced to, hence the concern of Horner.

[Scott]

Actually I meant KERS...mixed it up with DRS. 

[Ian]

Scott can't help it BD, all that yodelling has addled his brain cell. 

[Jericoke]

Easy, it's hard to recruit top talent if they think they're going to get a car that eases off the line while everyone passes them.

If I'm Kimi or Alonso, that's my first question, even before salary or ice cream privileges.

[lkjohnson1950]

It comes down to this, either Mark has crappy mechanics working on his clutch/start program, or he is a terrible leaver, or R/B has been sabotaging him to clear the way for Vettel. I vote for the latter.

[vintly]

There's no conspiracy, Red Bull know Vettel can handle a narky Mark Webber at any time so why would they feel the need to edge him out? Clear the way for Vettel? Webber's never in his way! Webber was always gonna go soon enough, and was on a one-year contract anyway.

Whatever the reason for Mark's poor starts, it's not a conspiracy.

Mark's evergreen popularity is off the scale, and Seb is being booed on the podium and people cheer when he's overtaken. This gulf in the popularity stakes gives rise to all sorts of misleading information. Over the years, most people would probably say Mark Webber's car has had at least twice the problems that Vettel's car has had, but the reality is quite different. As always, the devil's in the details. Read this:

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/189538-vettel-webber-and-reliability-at-red-bull/

[Scott]

I think he may have left out some details.  It would be an interesting project to scour around and clarify some of the 'issues'.  I'd also like to compare the KERS 'issues'.  I think some of Mark's were omitted, as even the commentators now exclaim 'Not KERS again for Mark' whenever he has a problem.

Can't speak for the others, but my point was simply that Horner is only now concerned about start line issues for Webber when he's had them for most of the past two years.  If they only now found them to be clutch related, could it be that it's been the same the other countless times he had such lousy starts?

[vintly]

Fair point, the article could be a bit skewey on detail. I certainly admit to my own pro-Red Bull bias at times.

Regarding Horner only now talking about clutch problems, no doubt they have been concerned and trying (unsuccessfully) to deal with start issues before now. Maybe Red Bull are guilty of assuming Mark's poor starts are more his fault than the car – and haven't properly addressed the issue. Maybe Mark hasn't effectively battered his team into dealing with the problem. Mark almost certainly doesn't get quite the level of expertise or detail that Seb is privy to, but that's understandable.

It will indeed be interesting to see how Mark's successor gets off the line next year.

[Dare]

We'll have to wait to next year to see if Daniel
inherits Mark's poor starts

[John S]

Mark almost certainly doesn't get quite the level of expertise or detail that Seb is privy to, but that's understandable.

No sorry I don't understand that at all.  Maybe you can give a bit more detail on your reasoning Vintly? 

[Scott]

Really John, you don't think Seb gets his pick of parts and mechanics?  You think it's an even...cough...playing field at RBR?