Sebastian Vettel fans flames on Red Bull feud

CALL it payback. Sebastian Vettel has no regrets that he disobeyed his Red Bull team because there was intent in his decision to betray his team-mate.

Vettel fans flames

CALL it payback. Sebastian Vettel has no regrets that he disobeyed his Red Bull team because there was intent in his decision to betray his team-mate.

There was no public flogging as Vettel faced an inquisition by the world's media, although he quipped that he had the lash marks to prove that he had been punished for deliberately ignoring team instructions. The strokes must have been soft because the world champion showed no signs that he is going to mend his ways.

Asked if he would ignore team orders again, as he did to snatch victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix from Mark Webber last month, Vettel said: "I am not sure I can give a proper answer because in the moment it might be different - but I would probably do the same."

The answer might have been couched with "perhaps" and "maybe", but there was no mistaking the reason for his decision. The penitence that Vettel showed immediately after that controversial finish in Malaysia was gone here in the run-up to the Chinese Grand Prix, to be replaced with a series of almost admirably candid replies to tricky questions.

Vettel admitted that his decision to overtake his team-mate for victory in the final stages in Malaysia was "indirectly" payback for Webber's lack of support in Brazil last season. With Vettel facing a last-race shootout against Fernando Alonso, of Ferrari, at Interlagos, he found his path blocked by his team-mate, with near-calamitous consequences.

Vettel neither forgave nor forgot, even when he was busy pressing buttons on his steering wheel in Sepang and weighing up whether to double-cross his team-mate.

These two have form, scrapping like a pair of naughty toddlers for almost all of their five seasons together with Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, as the patient parent. To be fair, they have both done their share of taking opportunities at the expense of their team-mate. No wonder that Vettel barely hesitated before launching himself past Webber's sister car.

Here was the damning assessment from the German yesterday: "After all that has happened in the past few years, Mark did not deserve to win," Vettel said.

Ouch, but then Webber would have been expecting that, even though Vettel apologised to him after the race in Malaysia, where the Australian had been told to turn his engine down as he led the race, only to discover his team-mate charging past. There was more to come, though, as Vettel decided to let it all out and draw attention to the chasm between the team-mates, if that is the correct description of drivers at war.

"I never had support from his side," he said. "I respect Mark as a racing driver, but there was more than one occasion in the past when he could have helped the team and he did not."

As the last ten laps unfolded in Sepang, Vettel had time to reflect on his decision and the evident anger on the Red Bull pit wall. It did not matter, though, because he would not have given first place back even if instructed to do so. "I did not mean to ignore the team's order," Vettel said. "I heard it, but I didn't understand it the proper way. I apologised for that."

Perhaps that was the only piece of bluster that let the world champion down. All he had to understand was the instruction, "Multi-21" - effectively the running order of the twin Red Bull cars, with Webber's car as No2 and Vettel as No1.

Red Bull have used that message throughout their partnership, yet Vettel claimed to have been momentarily confused. The truth was that he had made his mind up to overtake and deny his team-mate victory.

Where all of this leaves Horner is open to question. Vettel insisted that he had not undermined his team principal and went to great lengths to explain how he had apologised to both him and team members. But the damage is done and will probably never be repaired.

Webber was in sanguine mood after a holiday at home in Australia, but that belied that atmosphere in the Red Bull hospitality unit in the vast Shanghai paddock. "For me, it is not an unusual situation," Webber said. "When you are at the front in Formula One, there is always stuff going down - it just depends on how much is going down that you have got to manage."

The Times