In a sport all about timing, Sky Sports F1 expert Mark Hughes explains why the stars never quite aligned for the retiring Aussie
Thursday 28 November 2013 14:04, UK
Mark Webber the man is easy: straightforward, honest, deeply competitive, humble, human, sincere. No airs, no graces. Will always tell it like it is.
At much the same time came the arrival of exhaust-blowing technology - the intricate, mental dexterity required to get the best from this in terms of using the throttle was perfect territory for Vettel and worth a lot of lap time. This came along towards the end of 2010 and took off in a big way in 2011. The brief neutralising of the feature at the beginning of 2012 as Red Bull initially struggled to adapt to new restrictions on the technology restored Webber to level-pegging for speed with Vettel. But as soon as the feature was restored to full power, Vettel was back in the ascendant. Webber was born too late. Had he been a 25-year-old in an active ride Williams in the 1990s - where being committed through the fast corners was an absolute key to maximising the technology - his talents would have melded with the demands as perfectly as Nigel Mansell's. MH
