Webber Not Asking for No 1 Status at Red Bull

Mark Webber insisted that he did not request the No 1 status from his team for the final 5 races of the season. The Australian driver is currently leading the world championship and sits 24 points ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel in the classification, but made it very clear that the situation within the Red Bull lineup is the same at McLaren, which is everybody for himself, but both drivers for the team.

“Help from Vettel? It depends on the team. Rest assured I have not asked for anything. It's the same at McLaren,” stated the 34-year old Australian in a recent interview with Spain's Diario Sport.

Following the Italian Grand Prix, which Webber finished two positions behind Vettel, his manager Flavio Briatore urged the Red Bull organization to decide on a No 1 driver – obviously, he was referring to his client – if they want to win the championship. Otherwise, teams like Ferrari and McLaren might beat them for the F1 crown.

Sensing that he's on the verge of being “relegated” to the No 2 status, Vettel insisted, prior to the Monza race, that it would be nonsense for his team to focus on a single driver for the remaining rounds of the 2010 season. And while he did manage to get some points back from Webber in Italy, he is still a race win away from the Australian in the standings.

The team's motorsport consultant Helmut Marko – whom most consider the true manager of the Red Bull organization, being that he's the right arm of the team's owner Dietrich Mateschitz – hinted that the squad's officials will evaluate their strategy for the remaining rounds of the 2010 season after Monza and the drivers will have to accept it.