Mark Webber has revealed Sebastian Vettel involved lawyers to ensure he wasn't punished for the 'Multi 21' incident at Red Bull.
During the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Vettel ignored a team order from Red Bull not to overtake Webber and duly passed his team-mate to take victory. Team principal Christian Horner could be heard warning Vettel on team radio but the matter was dealt with internally and the German later admitted he was not punished.
Writing in his new book - Aussie Grit - which has been released in Australia, Webber says legal involvement prevented Red Bull from taking action.
“When Ann [Neal, Webber’s partner] later pressed [Horner] about why the team had never reprimanded Seb or issued any punishment for the ‘Multi 21’ incident, he admitted that the team had received a two-page letter from Seb’s lawyer a few days after the Malaysian race stating that they were in breach of his contract by giving him an ‘unreasonable instruction/team order’,” Webber wrote.
“Whatever [Vettel’s] thinking was, when he overtook me I wasn’t so much angry as very sad that the team had reached this sorry state.”
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