Mark Webber hoping engine probe does not distract team from fixing problem

 AN investigation into Red Bull Racing's engine mapping may hamper Mark Webber's bid to reignite his Formula One title chase.

MOTORSPORT: An investigation into Red Bull Racing's engine mapping may hamper Mark Webber's bid to reignite his Formula One title chase in Hungary this weekend.

Webber struggled for pace in Sunday's German GP, eventually finishing eighth in a race won by championship leader Fernando Alonso, who holds a 34-point lead over the Australian.

It was revealed before the race that the FIA had referred Red Bull to stewards over irregularities relating to the torque map used by the team's Renault engines during qualifying at the Hockenheim circuit.

Although stewards subsequently deemed the Red Bull cars to be legal, team principal Christian Horner didn't think the issue would end at that, following an FIA statement claiming the stewards "do not accept all the arguments of the team".

An F1 technical working group meeting was scheduled to be held in London overnight and Horner expects the mapping issue to be raised there.

"The regulations are clear, so there could well be further technical directives that are designed to try and further clarify those regulations," Horner told website Autosport.com.

Although it appears Red Bull won't face any punishment over the issue, a clarification or alteration of the rules may force some hurried technical changes.

And with the Hungarian GP this weekend, Webber will be hoping the issue doesn't distract his team from solving the issues that dogged him in Germany.

Having to start from eighth on the grid after a five-spot penalty for replacing a gearbox before qualifying, Webber never threatened to challenge during the race.

He said he was at a loss to explain why his RB8 was so slow.

"I just couldn't do the lap times. We thought about doing something different, strategy-wise, but if you don't have the pace, you can't even do that.

"What happened . . . is bizarre because we've been so competitive in the last few races and here I finished 40 seconds behind the winner."

AAP