Get The Violins: Laid-Back Webber Kicks Off About Not Being Horner's Golden Boy

Anyone who has followed Formula 1 recently will be aware that Mark Webber's relationship with the Red Bull team wasn't exactly harmonious. Following his departure for Porsche, Webber left a detailed insight into his relationship with teammate Sebastian Vettel, and bosses Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko.

The comments, posted on his official website, have since been deleted, but not before being saved. Webber's relationship with his colleagues slowly deteriorated thanks to the fact Webber perceived the team as treating Vettel as favourite.

Image via: Wikipedia

Webber's friendship with Christian Horner is the most interesting, as the pair began as very good friends, even owning a GP3 team together. The Australian admitted that they are "probably not as close now as we once were".

"Christian is going to be with the team for a long time – indefinitely, you'd imagine, unless he gets an approach from somewhere else – so he's got to make sure that he tries to keep everything as smooth as possible. In some cases that hasn't been something which might have benefited me. That's put a stress on the relationship."

Webber also took issue with Dr Helmut Marko, who has been a Vettel advocate since the beginning. His comments were completely dismissive, saying:

"I still don't really know his role in the team, so ... yeah. He was very critical of me from day one but in the end he's obviously brought Seb through and done a great job with that."

Image by Ryan Bayona

On the subject of his world champion teammate, he described him as "phenomenally gifted", stating that the German's pace in qualifying and the early stages of the race are what contribute to his great success. On their relationship, however, he wasn't quite so complimentary.

"There's so much water under the bridge between us that it's hard to think of more positives than negatives. That's a bit disappointing because you want to keep everyone in a respectful light, and give them as big a chance as possible, for as long as you can. But I think there's probably too much that's gone on between us. Maybe when we're 50-odd things will be different but with what we've been through it's hard to draw a line under too much of it. For sure I'm not super-bothered by it and nor is he. That's just the way it is."

Image via First Stop

It's a shame that such a well-liked, talented driver has had to suffer such indignity, but Red Bull Racing has a driver in Sebastian Vettel who continues to bring in titles - favouritism is only natural. In top-level sport winning is everything, so hopefully Webber can get the success and respect he deserves in sports car racing with Porsche.