Webber frustrated after timing error in qualifying

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Mark Webber said it was “frustrating” to qualify fifth for the Malaysian Grand Prix after he mis-timed his final lap in qualifying.

“I think we got out of the car what we could have done on the laps when I was pushing,” he said after qualifying. “We basically didn’t push when the track was at its quickest.”

“We thought we had a bit more time, well I thought I had a bit more time and more laps to play with. In the end I got the red flag, or red light when I went to open the last lap.”

Team principal Christian Horner said that while Webber had chosen to spend the session on one set of intermediates, Sebastian Vettel had opted for a fresh set.

“Both drivers had the choice of one [lap] and one [lap] or five timed [laps],” said Horner. “Sebastian immediately came on the radio and said he wanted to make a pit stop after the first time so that’s why we ended up doing one and one and Mark elected to stay out for five laps.”

“It was a shame because we timed it that he was going to get the chequered flag jut right he’s be the last car over the line which those conditions you want to be.

“Unfortunately he just backed of a bit too much, he let Lewis Hamilton past and that last lap. I think he thought it wasn’t his last lap but it certainly was. he crossed the line, he was the first car to cross the car after the chequered flag we’d set it up nicely for him to be the last to get a lap in.”

Webber said it was “frustrating, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

“We’re fifth and we can still race from there,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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54 comments on “Webber frustrated after timing error in qualifying”

  1. I don’t know he did wrong with pace control or calculation error from the pit wall.

    1. Yeah he crossed the line with just over 2 mins to go and I was happily thinking that the timing was perfect for a final lap. Couldn’t believe it when they screwed it up, especially since Hamilton was behind him and got another lap in. The Aussie commentators as usual didn’t even notice.

      1. @mattc888
        But ONE did some positive things like telling us the weather prior to the race on what has been predicted. TEN are really getting their act together especially with a 1980 F1 World Champion “AJ” on board with Greg Rust and Darryl Beattie.

        1. I think Alan Jones is a bit of an open mouth, he should choose his words before he speaks. His bias towards the Australian drivers is over patriotic and very one-eyed, and his repeated generallisations concerning latin drivers “needing conditions to be right to perform” overlook the likes of Fangio and Senna, and discredit the amazing job Filipe Massa is doing at the moment, out qualifying Fernando Alonso in the same machinery. I wish he would shut his mouth a bit more.

          1. But I think he was worse at Channel 9. IMO AJ knows his stuff more then @Thrusta1 but yet again he fronts TEN’s coverage of F1 and MotoGP. I am glad TEN picked him up as @cbairdo had racing commitments in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

    2. @eggry Could it be something to do with the ECU again?

  2. Truly frustrating, especially if he has another bad race start, but I hope not.
    I also hope that he do not have another KERS problem tomorrow.

    1. waiting for the day Webber makes the good start. He is in F1 more than decade and still struggles.

      1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
        23rd March 2013, 20:55

        He’s had plenty of good starts in the past i guess his bad ones started around mid 2011 since when they have been quite regularly bad, i wondered if it was one of the reasons webber didn’t fuss about cairon pilbeam leaving. The driver and his engineer have to work together to get the best start. Since australia was an isolated incident tomorrow will hopefully be the first chance to see if that change has made a difference.

    2. @hzh00 Its been a nagging prob with Webber… Can’t the team do something about it?

      Or is it something to do with a drivers skill…. I mean the whole grid doesn’t seem to have this problem regularly… How do the Ferrari’s get it right?

      1. @jjjj:
        Speaking f the KERS problem, I started feeling that it is somewhat ridiculous. I mean why does the same driver keep getting the same problem over and over again???!!!! Is it really just bad luck?? Or something else? And regarding the mistiming of his flying lap, is it really only his responsibility??!!! or is it also something else?? Why is there a race engineer in the first place?? Isn’t it to assist drivers in such situations??
        I know that Webber is a strong driver, and I respect him because when you look at him after a session, you can tell that he really did his best. But keeping the comparison away from other teams, and comparing him to the other Red Bull car, why do such problems always occur to him and his car?!! Sometimes I think it is not really pure bad luck… And even if it was only bad luck, I hope that it go away so we can really see his true form, and then, people will be able to discuss Webber’s skills as a driver.

        1. @hzh00 – Given who I support, it’ll come as no surprise that I don’t believe Webber is that unlucky compared to his teammate. It’s just that people tend to remember Webber’s misfortunes more vividly, because for whatever reason, he they cripple his session/weekend/season. And sometimes, it is at least partially of his own doing.

          Webber in this case, made an error (one that other drivers made) in not coming in for new tyres. And in addition, didn’t get over the line, allowing Hamilton through for some reason, even when his team set it up for him to be last over the line, and gain an advantage. And that crippled his session, since his previous best time was over 2s off the pace.

          Back in 2010, by contrast, his teammate was the one with the bulk of the mechanical issues, and lost by far the most points out of the title contenders because of this. But no-one remembers that- he won the title anyway. In fact, you’d be more likely to hear someone claiming Alonso lost the title purely because of a strategy error, or Webber lost it because he lost control of his car in Korea.

          Nevertheless, I agree that Webber is a strong driver. Not many drivers are 2x Monaco GP winners (not even Vettel, Hamilton or Raikkonen), or could have got a Jaguar onto the front row. It’s just that compared to the elite, he’s not quite there, and his inability to overcome his misfortune is part of that.

          1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            23rd March 2013, 23:26

            That’s not entirely fair mark was luckyer in 2010 but since then he has had more than the lions share of unreliability. I mean last year especialy was quite ridiculose that’s 2/3 seasons seb has had better reliability. Probably 3/4 if you look into 2009.

          2. Jimmy – Last year, Vettel had some unreliability in the races as well (e.g. Monza, Valencia), as well as the Sepang incident with Kathikeyan, so I’d say they were about even on the bad luck scale. Even in 2011, Vettel had the puncture in Abu Dhabi, “gearbox problem” in Brazil, and KERS failures in Sepang, Barcelona and Silverstone. But again, Vettel performed far better when he faced these issues (winning 2 of those races). So I fail to see what is so unfair about my initial comment.

          3. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            24th March 2013, 2:43

            Well mark has had countless kers problems last year which cost grid slots in qualy and up to 25 seconds in a race on pure pace let alone the fact it prevented him from over taking people and getting clear air. Just as one example he’d have beaten seb in australia this year and gotten 3rd to sebs 4th. If he had had kers in the race. As for karthikeyan that was vettals fault he had a car that was 5 seconds a lap faster. He had no buisness hitting the indian like he had no buisness running into a breaking board avoiding danial riccardo in brazil last year. I’m not going to say marks a better driver, that is obviously not the case from the score of 3 wdc to 0 but it is indesputible that he has had more unrealiability over their time at redbull.

          4. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III

            Just as one example he’d have beaten seb in australia this year and gotten 3rd to sebs 4th.

            No he wouldn’t.

            As for karthikeyan that was vettals fault he had a car that was 5 seconds a lap faster.

            Karthikeyan admitted he made an error as Vettel came past. Even if you’re 5 seconds slower, if you move into the way (which is how the stewards saw it, from more angles and replays han yourself or I), then you are at fault.

            I simply don’t buy the theory that Mark has been so unlucky with mechanical failures, but people claim that is the case because whenever his teammate has them, he gets around them. In Spain 2011, Vettel won despite a KERS failure. In Australia 2013, Vettel had issues in practice, tht could have crippled his weekend, but instead he grabbed pole by half a second. But of course, no-one remembers any of that.

            In fact, Webber didn’t have a mechanical/car DNF between Singapore 2009 and USA 2012. In that time, his teammate had five.

  3. What I’ve gathered from this article is that Vettel has done 1 lap on two sets of intermediates whereas Webber’s done 5 one – so Vettel has pole and fresher tyres for both dry and wet conditions (due to him only using one set of mediums to qualify for the top 10). The signs are good, I just hope that the tyres don’t fall off like last week…

    1. No….. Vettel, Webber and Raikkonen all used the same medium tyres for Q1 and Q2. They all have an advantage over the other members of the top 10, if the tyres crap out in the race.

      1. @coronis – ah, I’d only heard Ted Kravitz mention Vettel’s use of the same set, thanks!

        @puneethvb – I did make mention of that, but Webber put 5 laps on his and Vettel only did one on each along with the Ferrari’s ;) In the dry though I foresee much degradation on that Red Bull…

        1. Webber put 5 laps on a set of Intermediates and they have 4 sets of inters for the weekend. Qualifying tyre choice from Q3 will have no bearing on the race as inters behave and degrade differently to dry tyres in dry conditions, and it is unlikely they will spend a lot of time on the Inter’s anyway, being that they are a transitional tyre and the track is either wet, dry or dry’s quickly. Because they have qualified on Inter;s they can start on whichever tyre choice they like.

    2. @Vettel1

      Webber used only one set of Inters while Vettel used two sets of inters( the Ferraris too)… Vettel does have an extra set of fresh hard tyres as he only used one fresh set of medium in Q1 and Q2.. so if the race is dry Vettel may very well have a small advantage… but if the tyres fall off like they did last wekend it may not help much… Cant wait for the start of the race…

    3. Aren’t the tyre rules scrapped when it rains ? A dry start on inters would be as ridiculous as a wet start on slicks.

      1. @hohum – they are, but you still have to use both compounds if the race stays dry. So they can start on whatever they like but they’ll still have to use the medium at some point, but having two new sets might not be such a great advantage if the hard is favoured. So Ferrari may be at a disadvantage in that respect.

        1. “if the race stays dry” thats one big “if”

          1. Craig Packer
            31st March 2013, 4:06

            If the race is dry they have to use both specified dry compounds. If the race is wet and turns dry, or starts dry and then rains, that rule is annulled. So, if they have enough sets of the best tyre to see out the race, they will do it.

    4. Webbers extra set of unused inters might be useful in the race.

      1. And here in the USA David Hobbs said that contrary to expectation the inters seemed to be lasting as long as the hards.

        1. CORRECTION, the MEDIUMS were lasting as long as the hards.

  4. GET YOUR FFFFFING ACT TOGETHER, MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN ! ¬¬’

    1. My sentiments exactly -__-

    2. @fer-no65 If you mean the single finger…. Well I miss that ‘W’ that Jenson Button made at Melbourne 2012… What was that for anyways?

      1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
        23rd March 2013, 20:59

        winner? no idea but maybe :P

        ofc it could always been wenson wutton.

      2. @jjjj what are you on about? :S

        I ment that Mark (who im a fan of, as you can see from my avatar) should get his act together for once. Always something happens… KERS, starts, qualy… come on !

  5. Very disappointing quali result, was sure he would have another lap, isn’t it the pit walls responsibility to let webber know he needs to pick up the pace as to not miss the checkered flag?? could be worse but……..

  6. Is the pit crew for Web even there ?
    I’m watching it on television for christ’s sake and i knew MW needed to pit.

    1. Maybe his engineer is still working as though it is Kimi not Mark in the car and is “leaving him alone.”

    2. I guess that’s what happens when you’re not on Helmut Marko’s agenda :)

  7. MW had ample time to pit in the last few mins. The feedback he should receive from the pit was clearly not there.
    Another slack performance from RBR.

    1. @dufus – I don’t see how RBR were “slack”. Both drivers were given the same choice whether to pit or not. The choice the driver would make, was based on their feedback to the conditions they were driving in.

      Sebastian made the right call, Mark did not.

      1. @david-a Mayb Webber was not aware of the choice.. On TV we only heard Sebastian.. He he..

        1. @jjjj – According to paragraph five of this article, MW did know of the choice.

          1. @david-a : Not quite so clearl… In the 5th paragraph, it says they knew beforehand… But during the quali, what we heard was Horner asking Seb for a choice at that instant, was Webber asked too?

          2. @jjjj – I would assume yes. Not everything that is discussed on the radio is broadcast.

    2. It wasn’t the new tyre, it was missing the flag for his final lap that did it.

      1. @hohum, @dufus, @david-a, On Sky Horner explained Webber let Ham past on his last lap – not realising that would mean he’d miss opportunity for another lap, as planned. According to Horner it was precisely timed to have a few sec. until flag, instead Mark was 1st one done, by a sec. or so. Finally an enlightening Horner interview!

        1. Part of the FIA equipment fiasco ? Surely they would have a countdown to the end of the session on the s.wheel display normally?

          1. Part of the FIA equipment fiasco ?

            @hohum – Are some of those FIA equipment supplied by McLaren like the ECUs…

          2. @jjj, good question, but nobody has said so.

  8. Guess he’ll be about 10th after the start then…

  9. At least he isn’t coming out and moaning about his team like di Resta.

    1. Exactly:

      We thought we had a bit more time, well I thought I had a bit more time

      You will never hear DIR saying that.

  10. So many mistakes, Marko, ups I meant Mark.

  11. I don’t know what he is frustrated about, Marks terrible starts always see him 5th after the first corner anyway. He might actually have a chance of improving his position in the race rather than losing grid positions

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