Insiders at Red Bull believe they have moved quickly enough to contain the collateral damage arising from the controversial crash between drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, which cost them another one-two finish and a haul of 43 World Championship points in Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.
In a meeting with
top team management on Sunday evening, neither was allowed to leave the Istanbul Park circuit before the matter had been talked out.
Asked what was discussed, one source said: "Plenty! We had a detailed meeting and everyone had their say. There was no way that feelings were going to be allowed to fester. The matter is now all talked through."
Neither Webber nor Vettel accepted responsibility, and the management is divided. With team engineers expecting the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix to be a McLaren walkover, there is concern that the matter could become a distraction.
Yesterday the team principal, Christian Horner, stressed: "The most important thing, and I have had this situation before with drivers in different formulae, is to get issues out into the open and deal with them, and that is exactly what we will do here.
"There is no animosity between the drivers. They are both competitive. They are both hungry animals, and it is down to us to ensure that they learn from this and it doesn't happen again."
Meanwhile, perhaps keen to rub further salt in the wound after taking the one-two result that should have been Red Bull's, the McLaren chief engineer, Tim Goss, said: "Both our drivers are very, very sensible. They both handled themselves particularly well on the circuit and with the media. We employ them to be aggressive racing drivers. They like to fight; they are both world champions and out to prove they're the best. But the way they have handled themselves has been absolutely exceptional so far this year."
- THE INDEPENDENT
