Silverstone: The racing circuit here may be designed to give Red Bull wings but after Mark Webber's flagrant flouting of team orders quite enraged his bosses, Formula One was left wondering if, for a second year running at the British Grand Prix, an outbreak of civil war in the sport's highest flying outfit might end up clipping them.
In an extraordinary finale to a quite engrossing race, Webber admitted he "four or five times" blatantly ignored the instructions of his team boss Christian Horner over his car radio that he should stop pursuing his team-mate and runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel in the battle for second place.
Instead, determined to claw back points from the German world champion who has quite outclassed him all year, he engaged in a thrilling late, late duel which had Horner fearing that such "stupidity" could end up with a collision and both drivers failing to finish.
Advantage maintained
Actually, it did not look stupid; it just looked like good old-fashioned sporting combat and, in the event, Vettel clung on to his runner's-up spot to actually increase his lead over Webber in the championship race to 80 points, while Red Bull also extended their advantage in the constructors' race to a practically unassailable 110.
The episode may also have left fresh question marks over the future of the independent-minded Australian Webber at the end of a week in which, ironically, it had appeared increasingly likely that his contract would again be renewed next season, since Red Bull say they are not entertaining the idea of snapping up Lewis Hamilton's wandering mind.
Asked if the episode would have any effect on contract negotiations with Webber, Horner said, "I sincerely hope not," adding curtly when asked about possible disciplinary measures that he would discuss the issue with him in private.
But the Australian's defiance will have reminded the team of his uncomfortable outbursts last season, when he felt he was being treated as a second-class citizen within the team compared to Vettel. It all came to a head when, on winning at Silverstone last year, Webber had ended up offering the provocative declaration over the car radio: "Not bad for a No 2!" This time, evidently still feeling nothing had changed in his status when told to keep a gap and back off from challenging Vettel in the final laps, he still sounded unrepentant afterwards when announcing: "I'm not fine with it, no. Of course, I ignored the team and I was battling to the end."
Surprising move
Did he still feel like the No 2? "Not really. I just want to race until the end. Of course I ignored the team because I wanted to try and get a place. Seb was doing his best, I was doing my best. I wasn't going to crash with anyone."
Yet several overtaking manoeuvres in the final three laps enraged team principal Horner, who admitted surprise at Webber's insubordination.
"We didn't stop them racing but there comes a point when you've got a lot of points, both drivers on the podium, so it would be absolute stupidity to allow them to race it out. It got very close between the two of them and we'd have looked pretty stupid if they'd have both ended in the fence."
Horner remembered how Vettel was forced to retire at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul last year after crashing with Webber, an incident which first sparked Webber to complain publicly of the team's favouritism towards the young German.
