F1 News - Latest F1 News

Christian Horner thinks there is no chance that Mark Webber will seek to walk away from Red Bull in the wake of the latest favouritism controversy that has engulfed the team.

Webber, who won Sunday’s British Grand Prix, has demanded talks with the team’s management to discuss their decision to take

its new front wing design off his car to put on team-mate Sebastian Vettel's from qualifying, a call that hugely frustrated the Australian veteran.

Although he still won the race at Silverstone, the 33-year-old had not forgotten the incident after the grand prix and admitted he would not have signed a fresh one-year contract at the team for 2011 last month had he known this was the treatment he would receive.

RBR team principal Horner, however, doesn’t think that Webber’s frustration will lead him to look for a way out of the championship-chasing squad.

“Mark has a contract with us for the future,” he told reporters in the Silverstone paddock.

“We’ve provided him with a car that has enabled him to run at the front, win grands prix and challenge for the world championship.

“I doubt very much he is going to walk away from that.”

Horner is convinced that in the cold light of day Webber knows that the team isn’t favouring Vettel and will understand why he made the decision he did on the front wing.

“Mark hasn’t signed a contract as a number two driver,” he added.

“He knows the length that the team has gone to, with the weight difference that there is between the two drivers, to try and achieve parity.

“He knows the lengths the team has gone to, to support him and I have no doubt when he has a chance to reflect on this, yes, lessons can be learned but looking objectively at it as a sportsman that sometimes difficult decisions have to be made.”

Although the relationship between Webber and Vettel had already appeared frostier since the pair collided while leading the Turkish Grand Prix in May, Horner is in no doubt that Webber fully understands the team ethic at Red Bull.

“At the end of the day, he is a team player,” he said.

“I can understand that emotions are running high in an intense battle with your team-mate,

“But the bottom line is, he has won the British Grand Prix here today, he was flawless, he had a better start than his team-mate and that was the difference between the two of them today.” ITV-F1