Mark Webber has given his frank opinion on former rival Sebastian Vettel, who won all four of his titles alongside the Australian during a sometimes fractious period as team mates at Red Bull.
Vettel spent 94 Grands Prix alongside Webber – his longest-standing team mate – having joined Red Bull in 2009, before leaving as a four-time world champion at the end of 2014. The pair served up a few flashpoints – most notably their collision in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and the famous ‘Multi 21’ saga of 2013 – as they went wheel-to-wheel for championship supremacy.
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“Look: an incredible career, untouchable in the [championship] years,” said Webber after Vettel announced his retirement in Hungary last week. “Certainly, he loved when Pirelli turned up and he was an absolute masterclass I think for a lot of us, in those years, through the blown diffuser days. And there was a lot of regulations that he certainly worked incredibly hard to understand and did a great job.
"And obviously he racked up a phenomenal amount of success in a short period of time, which is something that all of us colleagues have respect for.
“But I think he’s made the right call. Obviously, it’s totally down to the individual at that point, there’s no one else who can make that decision for you, but I don’t think it’s a surprise. I think it was pretty obvious it was coming and fair play, off he goes.”