DECEMBER 15, 2010

Webber: loss of form is having a season a bit like Felipe...

Mark Webber has revealed that he snapped his brake pedal trying to get his Red Bull slowed down upon landing from his cartwheeling shunt in the European GP at Valencia.

Mark Webber has revealed that he snapped his brake pedal trying to get his Red Bull slowed down upon landing from his cartwheeling shunt in the European GP at Valencia.

Speaking about the incident on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Aussie said: "I actually snapped the pedal clean in half. Very frightening, not a good position to be in at all.... F1 cars are meant to stay on the deck.

"I was worried about bridges... if I make any contact with something up there, anything can happen and I knew there were a few solid things overhanging the circuit. The cars are designed for impact on the ground... when you're up there, at that speed, a lot of the impact testing goes in the bin because you're very exposed." Red Bull's telemetry showed that he had exerted between 250 and 300 kg of force braking before the pedal snapped, something he described as "a bit of an adrenaline roll going on..."

Webber, 34, has a Red Bull deal for 2011 and despite sometimes strained relations surrounding the competition with his team mate, new world champion Sebatian Vettel, denied any thoughts of a move and rather called for design ace Adrian Newey to be knighted.

"I never thought about actually going somewhere else," he said. "I knew I had to sort it out within my own operation. As I've said quite a few times, the team and myself, we all learned a lot this year about how to go racing consistently at the front and at that level.

Ferrari and McLaren have had their tears with two competitive drivers, and I'm not talking about Lewis and Fernando a few years ago. Ferrari has been around for 50 years, Red Bull has been on the block for five minutes."

Webber defended his decision not to tell Christian Horner or the Red Bull team about a shoulder fracture he suffered when he went over the handlebars of a mountain bike.

"I think it was absolutely the right thing to do. In a competitive environment it is hard enough as it. People would try to understand why it happened, what has he got, what's he going through? There were enough questions and interrogations as there was. I said to my closest people, Mum and Dad, Ann, Roger (his physio), 'this is as far as it is going...

"For Christian, sometimes a little bit of information is dangerous. He had a lot of stuff on his plate and to throw it on him at that stage¦ it's easy to say now it would have been great to let people know, but the best tactic was to not to let anyone know.

"It wasn't a trust issue, it's more like in a boxing ring - if you had something sore why would you let anyone know you are not on your top game? Once I was in the car I was totally focused and it was fine."

Other highlights of the interview included the subject of which other team he would like to drive for, which elicited the response that "every single driver has some attachment to Ferrari." That may or may not have been related to his answer to a later question about late season loss of form.

"I don't think that's true," he said, "I was about a second behind Sebastian at Suzuka and very close in Brazil. Loss of form is having a season a bit like Felipe¦"