F1 News: Mark Webber Defends Max Verstappen Over Brazilian GP Controversy

The former Red Bull driver discusses the Brazilian GP friction between Verstappen and Perez.

Former F1 driver Mark Webber, who drove for Red Bull between 2007 and 2013, has defended the team over the friction between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. 

The end of the GP at the Interlagos track saw a dramatic moment between Verstappen, Perez, and the Red Bull team. Perez was still in his fight for second place in the championship against Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, whereas, Verstappen had already taken the championship win. 

The team instructed Perez to let Verstappen past in order to try and take some points from Fernando Alonso and Leclerc, but if he couldn't overtake Alonso he was to give the place back to Perez before the end of the race. 

Verstappen was not able to achieve the overtake of Alonso so we heard the team instruct him to let Perez back past which the Belgian-Dutch driver ignored. The team asked Verstappen what happened and he said that he had already given his reasons in summer and to not ask him to do that again. 

Webber has spoken about the moment to Speedcafe.com saying there was not much the team could have done at the time. He explained:

"[The team] can't press the pause button in the middle of the race. The communication with Max in Brazil seemed to surprise him somewhat."

"It was dealt with internally post-race. Trying to talk to the driver with the helmet on in the last laps of the race to try and get the full picture of what was going on is not always easy."

The team and both driver's all told the press afterwards that it had been dealt with behind closed doors and that everything was fine between the team members. Webber went on to add that he thinks that was the best way to deal with it. He said:

"There are some things that should remain private within the teams."