Not whilst Alonso's there AG; and not until Newey wants to leave Red Bull either. After Alonso's era (I believe he will see out his 'useful' days at Ferrari), things may be different; but I believe this is some way in the future yet… */Vettel\ = my edit
I honestly don't think Vettel cares whether Alonso or Newey are there or not. Not after Monza, you could see what it meant to him, he'd have been wishing he was in Alonso's overalls, maybe willing to swap trophies with him for the honour. Even if Alonso refused to have him there, Vettel's six years younger and should have plenty of time left after Alonso retires.
Vettel may not care about Alonso (I'd agree with that actually) but Alonso does care about Vettel; and Vettel does care about Newey - which is why it became contractual!
I think Vettel needed Newey as an incentive to sign for Red Bull, but if Ferrari came calling I'm not so sure. Alonso was prepared to pledge the rest of his career to Ferrari despite them being distinctly third best in this era of F1. Personally I can't see what all the fuss is about, but clearly Ferrari mean something to both Alonso and Vettel.
Although everything AbsolutelyGlorious says makes perfect sense I don't believe any of it, any story can be told in a way to favour one character or the other in political terms it is called "spin". I only have to look into Marks eyes and listen to the way he talks to understand the truth of the matter let alone what I see happening in the team and on the track. Turkey last year, the whole team blames Mark for a collision with Vettel for what was blatantly 100% Vettel's fault I cannot understand this even if I try and make up some fantastic story to justify it. And of course the Silverstone wing incident says all you need to know about who's the favoured driver. And as for me my gut tells me I'm not talking bollocks...
Also didn't Horner say something near the end of last season basically saying that this would be Webber's only chance to win the WDC because after this year Vettel would be number 1 in the team?
Malfunctioning account. The blue, orange and green bars disappeared entirely for a while. I preferred it when they weren't there.
I think that in 2009 Vettel was unproven and still learning so in was obvious for Red Bull to have Webber leading the team because of his experience. In 2010 I think they were officially equal team mates with equal equipment and strategy (just look at how they alternated being last out for Q3) however Vettel clearly had more emotional support. This year I think Vettel winning the WDC has given Red Bull the excuse/opportunity to have Vettel as the number one in the team and with Webber getting on and only having one year contract extensions this has given Red Bull the power to basically make him comply with it or get replaced.
He was bullet proof in the fastest car and yet managed to get on the podium in less than half the races last season, only beaten his team-mate once in 5 years, and he's a bit of a choker. There are worse drivers on the grid, Karthekeyan, D'Ambrosio for example, so no, but close.
To call webber the worst driver this season is ridiculous. He's only finished outside the top 5 once, and that was due to a crash. he's been on the podium numerous times. Surely Nick Heidfeld was the worst, because he was the first driver from a sensible team to be replaced (with HRT, driver changes are inevitable)
he was replaced, yet was ahead of his team-mate in the WDC, and is still equal with him atm. so no, Heidfeld wasn't either, I think he was a cost cutting exercise.
I don't think Webber is the worst driver, there are a lot of other drivers far worse than him, for example Liuzzi, Karthikeyan, D'Ambrosio, Trulli, Barrichello and Massa. Still found somewhat related stuff here: http://sundayafternoonclub.blogs.topgear.com/2011/09/25/singapore-gp-review-vettel-awesome-again-but-does-webber-need-to-go/
I think that Mark has seemed bad becuase Seb has been so phenonomally impressive! To be fair to him he has pulled off some awesome moves such as Eau Rouge but I don think he has the raw pace to stay with Seb!! Jenson, although impressive has not been as impressive as Seb so this makes Lewis' performance look better! I would say that they both have had terrible seasons but there isnt much to pick and choose between them in my opinion!!
