Mark Webber has on many occasions spoken out against team orders. He has also ignored them.
So I would like to know your opinion, would Webber have followed a team order to hold position behind Vettel if he had been asked to?
This is my take on it:
One very good example of Webber ignoring team orders is Silverstone 2011. In that race he not only ignored them but he defended his actions.
If you read the article written by Webber for the BBC after that race you can get a clear view of his opinion.
Some quotes from that article:
"I chose to race as hard and as fair as I thought was possible, trying my best to beat Seb. I got pretty close a couple of times but couldn't quite pull it off. I feel comfortable about what I did."
"To be told to hold position is something I wasn't prepared to follow at the time. If I'd backed off and held the gap at three seconds, as I was asked to do, it would have been much more difficult for me to sleep after the race. At the same time, I knew I was going against the team's wishes."
"To my way of thinking, the ball's as much in Seb's court as it is in mine in such situations. We should be free to race but to keep the team's best interests in the back of our minds, which I'm sure would have been the case anyway."
"What made it difficult for me to accept was that it happened so close to the end of the race. When you are coming to the line there is no more strategy to be played out. It's just a straight fight. In that case, any driver is going to be a little bit less inclined to accept a request like that, because they know that is what the result is going to be."
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Webber also mentioned this:
"I'm not fine with it [team orders]. If Fernando Alonso retires on the last lap, we're battling for victory. Of course I ignored the team and I was battling to the end."
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This seems to imply that had they been fighting for the win, in no way would Webber have respected team orders to hold back.
There are a few differences between Silverstone 2011 and Sepang 2013.
Silverstone 2011:
1. They were fighting for 3 points (which is less than half of what they were fighting for at Sepang).
2. Vettel was very much ahead in the championship that 3 points wouldn't have made a very big impact on Webber's title chances.
Sepang 2013:
1. It was just the second race of the year, the championship was still wide open and 2 of the past 3 championships have been won by under 7 points.
2. Red Bull has always maintained that if it came to it, they will favor the driver who is in front in the championship standings. Whichever Red Bull driver won in Sepang would have been ahead. So winning in Sepang also meant team advantage in the next race/next few races.
So the stakes were much higher at Sepang 2013 than they were at Silverstone 2011.
Considering all this and given Webber's past history concerning team orders, I conclude that Webber would have disobeyed team orders too, if he had been in Vettel's position and had been asked to hold position behind the leader.
What do you think?
Please vote and please leave an answer especially if you think Webber would have followed orders, since I have shown why I believe he wouldn't have.
***** EDIT *****
This is what Christian Horner has to say about it:
"If Mark Webber had been in that position... we have seen him do the same. Let's not kid ourselves that this is something unique to Sebastian."
Edited by vone, 29 March 2013 - 09:42.