I want to start out firstly to say I am sorry. Sorry for about to break that promise, but somethings cannot be left unsaid. Sometimes you just have to take things a little personally.
Coming off of the 2010 season, many journo's, bloggers and fans alike are riding on the coat tails of what had happened in 2010. Amongst the Red Bull Racing team and it's drivers. 
I have spoken to many fans and read many forums and the word is spreading like wildfire, 'Does Red Bull hate Mark Webber?' That the team is already playing favourites only on the third race weekend. Conspiracy theories are cropping up everywhere that it is either RBR is working against Webber or that the team is incompetent. Fans on all sides are throwing their favourite driver's technical issues that have occurred as if they were stones. 
This brings up a whole new low for the sport. Why would a team work so hard against one of their drivers when it is the team that benefits from the Constructor's title? I am sure that every single man and woman on both sides of the Red Bull garage are up in arms trying to figure out what is going on. It is the team as a whole that shares the Constructor's title. Anyone will know that the Driver's title is just that, for the driver. It also follows the driver when and if they decide to leave the team. 
Being an amazing example of how you can go from the bottom to the top in such a short time, you would think that many of these theories would be be found on other teams websites and forums. Unfortunately it is not, looking online to see if Red Bull has released anything about Mark Webber's issues and their fan base has started to split. Even the members of their fanzone have started blaming the team.
I understand that Formula One is on a level all it's own. That it is next to impossible to compare a road going car to the likeness of the RB7 but I have been battling my Kia for nearly a year now and everything checks out and the computer says that it is ok. Yet it still loves to stall at the most inopportune times. With a dozen more times the components, and the lack of leisure time with the car, why can Red Bull Racing not be having a similar issue? This is the team that has some of the best minds and bodies working for them. It's no simple feat on any end to claim a the coveted Constructor's Title with so little tenure in the sport. So incompetence? Far from it! Favoritism? History shows that the drivers have no qualms in letting the press know.
I say let the team have a good portion of time in the factory before taking part in the conversations that have spread across the internet....
I say let the team have a good portion of time in the factory before taking part in the conversations that have spread across the internet....
The problem and source for so much paranoia is the (so far) they only see these things happening to the one car. This of course completely ignores Seb's problems with KERS in Malaysia, but conspiracy theorists never let facts get in the way of their hot air.
ReplyDeleteOnce these things they start, they take on a life of their own, of course. Even if Seb now has unreliability of the type that has been inflicting Webber's season, they rabidly paranoid will not be satisfied; there will be further conspiracy theories about parts getting swapped between the cars and so on.
And to be fair, this is all the legacy of Red Bull shooting itself in the PR Foot last year, especially at Silverstone. At the time, they seemed to get off relatively lightly - but now it can be seen that the fuse that was lit at the time has simply had a long delay.
What should they do about it? If I had an answer to that, i'd be making a lot more money than I am now - but for a start I would tell Horner to keep his mouth shut about ANYTHING that compromises transparancy within the team's operations, starting with the comments about team radio being available to the public.