With Mark Webber’s need for speed never greater, the inquest into his Australian Formula One Grand Prix failure has already begun.
Webber was given the rounds of the kitchen by teammate Sebastian Vettel in allegedly identical Red Bull cars in Melbourne.
But Webber, who finished fifth, says his team already have something to work with after initial examinations of post-race data from his car, which struggled badly to keep up with Vettel.
The world champion won Sunday’s race, and consistently lapped between eight-tenths of a second to a full second quicker than the Australian in qualifying and on race day.
“The telemetry after the race gave us a few pointers, but we really need to strip the car down to see if there was something seriously wrong,” Webber said.
“I won’t be lining myself up for races like the one I’ve just had every weekend.”
“To finish that far behind is not really usual, but let’s stay cool – it’s the first race.”
While it wasn’t entirely to blame for his showing, Webber was also cursed with his team’s decision during the race not to use KERS – the system which stores kinetic energy from braking to use as power when needed.
He could have done with it twice at critical times.
Firstly, when he powered off the grid only for second-placed Lewis Hamilton to use KERS to keep him out.
And again, late in the race when he was at his quickest and trying to pass Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso to grab fourth.
Instead Alonso used his KERS every time he was challenged by Webber to good effect.
As the Australian’s soft tyres melted away, so too did his hopes of rising above fifth place at his home grand prix.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner said concerns over whether the team could get their KERS working meant they decided to shelve it for Sunday’s race.
“We ran it on Friday and we weren’t happy with the reliability, we felt it was a potential risk, so we took it off both cars.”
The F1 circus now heads to Malaysia for round two, where Webber will be aiming not to be beaten by Vettel for a seventh successive GP.
