Mark Webber: The other number 2 of Red Bull

After his victory in Jeddah, Perez will try to repeat this feat in Australia. A country from which Mark Webber, the other number 2 in Red Bull's history, comes from.

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After his victory in Jeddah, Sergio Perez doesn’t hide his desire to compete with Max Verstappen for the Formula 1 World Championship title. After spending 2 seasons playing the role of a lieutenant, the Mexican seems to want to prioritize his personal ambitions in 2023. Wanting to leave his role as number 2 is something that another Red Bull driver, Mark Webber, never achieved in 5 seasons.

The early years at Red Bull

Mark Webber joined Red Bull in 2007. Driving mediocre cars, the Australian had to wait until the 2009 season, along with the new regulations, to have a car capable of fighting for victory for the first time in his career. After 130 races, the man nicknamed “The Aussie Grit” had finally won the German Grand Prix. At the time, it was a record. Today, the record is held by Sergio Perez, who had to wait 190 races before his first win. This first season of collaboration between Vettel and Webber at Red Bull was marked by the German’s domination over his teammate in qualifying. In 17 Grand Prix races, Webber only managed to beat Vettel in this exercise on two occasions. By finishing as the runner-up while Webber finished 4th, the winner of the 2008 Monza Grand Prix established his territory at Red Bull in his first season.

The disillusionment of 2010

With Adrian Newey’s RB6, Red Bull drivers know that they possess a weapon that will enable them to compete for the title. Formula 1 has often shown that the hunger for victory surpasses human relationships between teammates. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were no exception to this rule. It was in Turkey that the relationship between the two men significantly deteriorated. On the 40th lap of the race, after around twenty laps spent behind his teammate, Sebastian Vettel attempted an overtaking maneuver to take the lead of the race. However, he misjudged and collided with Webber, forcing him to retire. Since neither of the two drivers wanted to admit their faults, they hardly spoke to each other for the rest of the season.

The other breaking point occurs three races later at Silverstone. During the free practice sessions, Sebastian Vettel damages his new front wing. Red Bull then makes the decision to give Webber’s wing to Vettel. The message is clear: the German is Red Bull’s prodigy and it is him who receives the latest improvements and thus is privileged in the fight for the title. The future four-time world champion thus secured pole position, just ahead of his garage neighbor. Upset with his team and Vettel, Webber made a superb start, something that has been quite rare in his career, squeezed Vettel to take the lead and went on to win. At the end of the race, he delivered one of the most famous radio messages in the sport: “Not bad for a number 2 driver.”

Upon arriving in Abu Dhabi, 4 drivers could potentially be crowned at the end of the Grand Prix: Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, and Jenson Button. It was the German who took advantage of his rivals’ poor strategies to win the race and secure the first of his four titles. Things were less joyful on the other side of the garage. Finishing 8th, Webber fell 12 points behind in the championship. Unfortunately for the Australian, even though Red Bull continued to design cars capable of fighting for the title, he never managed to display the same level of competitiveness as he did in 2010. Mentally drained from the disappointing 2010 campaign, Webber succumbed to his teammate’s dominance in the following three years. Vettel defeated him by 134 points in 2011, 102 in 2012, and ultimately by 198 in 2013, their last year of collaboration.

A tense final season

While Webber had been playing the role of Vettel’s deputy for 2 seasons, this did not prevent a final high-tension confrontation between the two in Sepang in 2013. Vettel, who had started in pole position, had lost the lead of the race due to pit stops. Between the 39th and 45th lap, the German kept widening the gap between him and Webber. Despite Red Bull instructing their triple world champion to stay behind his teammate with a team order, “Multi 21,” Vettel did not respect it and initiated a duel against his garage neighbor. Thus began an extremely tense battle, with the two men leaving very little room for each other. It was Webber who ended up being the loser and was denied the victory that his team had promised him. This act was particularly poorly received at the time. F1 observers judged that Vettel had shown a lack of respect towards his deputy. Rumors circulated that the man nicknamed “Baby Schumi” (referring to Michael Schumacher) had not been kind to his teammate because the latter had not put up enough resistance against Alonso in last year’s Grand Prix of Brazil.

This situation is not without recalling the one that Red Bull went through last year in Brazil. While Max Verstappen had already won the title, the Dutch driver refused to let his teammate pass him, who was still fighting for the position of vice-champion. Verstappen’s refusal allegedly stemmed from Perez’s spin during the qualifying session in Monaco. The Mexican driver was accused of intentionally causing a yellow flag in order to secure pole position and ultimately the victory.

In the span of 10 years, the situation hasn’t changed at Red Bull. The team is still composed of a prodigious child around whom the team is entirely devoted. The only chance for the second driver to change this dynamic is to assert himself on the track. However, this is particularly complicated by the fact that the development of the car is focused around the number one driver. That is why, in his goal of becoming a world champion, Sergio Perez must show himself to be particularly threatening during this first part of the season. If Max Verstappen starts to accumulate too many points ahead by mid-season, the team will deny the Mexican the opportunity to compete.

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