After revealing, in his latest book “Up Front”, that he sustained a mountain bike accident shortly after the Singapore Grand Prix and he subsequently raced with a shoulder injury in the remaining 4 rounds of the season (without sharing that information with his team bosses from Red Bull), his manager Christian Horner admitted frustration and disappointment over the news.
A few hours later, several F1 pundits – including former Grand Prix and rally driver Hans-Joachim Stuck – defended Webber's decision. So now he addressed all those questions in an interview posted on his official website. And the first thing that he wanted to mention was that the injury did not affect in any way his performances during the last 4 Grands Prix of last season.
“I was very confident it wouldn't affect my performance in the car, which is why I didn't tell anyone,” began Webber.
“There was no need. The shoulder wasn't causing me a problem, so there was no need to talk about it to anyone. If I'd had any issues with it in the car, then of course I would have told the team. But that wasn't the case. I've never missed a grand prix but of course if I couldn't drive the car a) safely and b) on the limit, I would have notified the team.”
While defending his decision to reveal his injury in the book, as he argued the Aussie fans have a right to know about his journey in F1 throughout the 2010 season, with all that happened to him in the process, Webber also fended off rumors that he missed the Pirelli tire test in Abu Dhabi last month due to the injury.
“I can't imagine where those stories came from. Some people have asked whether the shoulder was the reason I didn't do the Abu Dhabi tyre test in November, but it had nothing to do with it. I was never down to do that test.”
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