Quote:
Originally Posted by codename_47
Don't forget Red Bull 2nd car syndrome, which people might think is a new phenomena with Gasly and now Albon, but has been their mantra since day 1
Vettel was the favoured son and Webber just there to make up the numbers as far as Red Bull were concerned, hence "not bad for a number 2 driver" and "Multi 21" outbursts which were caused by him overcoming either the team's favouring policy or Seb's downright ruthless selfishness, backed up by the team
While I actually don't think Webber was quite on the level of Seb, the fact he managed to haul himself into the title fight in 2010 is pretty impressive, especially after the Silverstone and Turkey incidents.
Indeed, fighting for a title, having your team mate hit you in an accident that is his fault, then have the team blame YOU for it must've been quite demoralising for Mark
Perhaps telling that it was after 2010 that his results started to slide, as he knew maybe on some subconcious level that even if he gave it 100%, it woudn't be enough to counter the dearth in talent+team favouring Seb.
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I can't agree with that at all. The gap between Webber and Seb was absolutely massive. Only once did during Vettels title years did Mark get even remotely close. Second car syndrome and moving front wings around does not make up over a 100 point difference between the drivers. Or, even worse, the fact Mark NEVER managed to finish as runner up. Even when the car was completely dominant, he still wouldn't have won the titles. The year the Ferrari was good enough to fight the Red Bull, Webber finished alongside Massa in the championship in 6th and 7th - whilst their team mates won titles. Mark had less podiums than his team mate had wins.
Webber was also ruthlessly selfish. Remember that the year before Multi-21 he happily ignored team orders at Silverstone, which were to hold station. The
only difference between between that at Sepang was Seb got the job done, and Mark failed. Both were equally selfish, just one of them was far more talented. So lets not sit here and pretend that was a Seb attribute - that's a racing driver attribute.
You'll get no argument from anyone about Sebs last few years. But the Red Bull years were not a case of "Well it was just the team favouring Vettel". Even when that car utterly dominated, Webber was simply not good enough. Take Vettel out of that car, and it wouldn't have won any titles.
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So here's the deal with AMR and Perez and Vettel. You can pick Vettel and you might get a World Champion. You might get a flop. Or you can pick Perez and you will get a driver who is only a little better than Stroll now, and that's it.
If you pick the safe option every time then you're not going to get anywhere. Perez is not going to going to turn that team into a championship contending one. Vettel might. He might fail (and probably will), but he might just do it. So which sounds better?
I personally think Vettel will be a flop. However I think it's the perfect risk at a good time for AMR. Because the downside is Vettel gets sacked and replaced a year later. The pay off is that he could do great things in the car.