Last Sunday Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix and is now leading the standings, but the news of the week is the fact that Vettel ignored team orders and overtook his team mate Webber for the win. If you read the news and/or forums you'll find lots of opinions ranging from slamming Vettel as the devil to hailing him as the best. As always the truth is somewhere in the middle.
My view on the controversy, is that Vettel clearly did a mistake in ignoring team orders. The team must take absolute priority or otherwise things will get ugly. However, there are several things we need to take into considerations:
- Webber has done exactly the same thing in Silverstone 2011 and openly saying that he didn't want to obey to team orders (It's funny that lots of anti-Vettel people make up excuses that Silverstone was different and "bla bla bla" while the man himself did wrote a BBC column explaining his decision to attack Vettel).
- Webber went too far in Brasil 2012, almost crashing Vettel, while Vettel was fighting for the title, while Webber for nothing. Obviously Vettel didn't forget it.
- It's clear that Vettel is the better driver in Red Bull and based on the last years, those seven points may decide the title. It's such a big risk for Vettel to let it go.
So even though Vettel was in the wrong, the biggest problem goes to Red Bull/Horner. If Webber didn't obey the orders before, how can they expect Vettel to obey? Additionally they did put Vettel in a strategy that would give him the best tires at the end of the race. What is the point of that, if he cannot overtake Webber? And last, it's only the second race in the championship: Why have team orders?
Next question is what happens next? People are going as far as suggesting to ban Vettel from one race. I find it ridiculous :) Vettel is a triple World Champion and fighting for the fourth. I don't think Red Bull is that stupid to give away 25 points to the competition. Most probably there will be a penalty to Vettel, in the form of money/benefits, but that's all. While regarding the relationship with Webber they were never best friends and not much is going to change. Webber will fight again to have his buddy (Alonso) with the Championship, but Vettel will not need any help to get his fourth title :)
P.S Even though, Vettel was in the wrong, it showed one thing that I did like: he earned the "Baby Schumacher" nickname. Most people will not agree, but to win it all, you need that attitude :)