I suppose they could fire Webber, but I don't see it happening, not as long as Dietrich Mateschitz is the main man at Red Bull, he did hire Webber for the past 3 years declining offers from the likes of Hamilton, I think that says enough.

As for what they could do, 2 reverses in the future, it's the amount of points Vettel stole/took knowingly. They could also suspend him for one race, but that's unlikely.

Horner must be bummed out, instead of celebrating he has to read bad stories about RBR, one guy even called him impotent. :P

The whole situation was weird but if I was Webber this wouldn't please me as it wouldn't be a race hard won by good tactics and good driving. His victory was taken from him because he followed orders which he mistakenly thought Vettel would follow too.

Suspending Vettel is the most likely scenario. But the thing for the team is if they had Webber win, both drivers would have the same number of points (33) and in joint first. Instead Vettel is now 14 points behind Vettel, so you could imagine his reaction if he's within 13 points of Vettel come the end of the season, or the teams reaction if Webber ends up 6 points away from say Raikonnen to win the championship.

In my eyes, the true effects will only be felt later in the season. It's frustrating now, sure. But there's going to be no issues for a while in terms of the effect it has on the season. Unless it ends  like Alonso and Hamilton, it may well do.

i'd be impressed if red bull suspend vettel for a race but thats like hurting yourself

i agree though with 3 WC's in the trophy cabinet you'd think seb could have taken one for the team and webber

Red Bull's priority is probably to push this whole ordeal under the carpet ASAP. For that reason I doubt that any punishment would be serve to Vettel.

Webber will calm down eventually.

I like Webber, I have watched him doing interviews on various talk shows and I like his attitude. But let's be realistic, he is not a top notch driver. He should be finishing at least second to Vettel over the last three seasons.
It is not a good reflection on a driver's skills when your team mate is winning WDCs and you are not even in the picture.

This is likely his last season in F1 and the last chance to prove that he can compete with vettel in the same car.
For greedy Vettel to take the win knowing that Webber was told to ease off the pace really shows up Vettel for what he really is.

I believe that Red Bull kept Webber for exactly the same reason Ferrari kept Massa. They are both good team players. Both drivers are now unlikely to ever win a WDC but are good for both teams.

that's right and vettel is obviously the No 1 driver

webber could do something crazy or spiteful later in the season but having watched him for along time i doubt he would,it is a shame for webber on a personal level though as most have pointed out he earned that win fair and square

I'm mostly surprised that Vettel apologized right after race. He's a clever guy and I bet he realized his unfairness already before the race ended. An apology after the race for something he did on purpose is not only not needed but also damaged his reputation. The better option - apart from not passing by at all of course - would have been to undo the unfairness by letting Webber pass him by again in one of the last laps. THEN an apology for endangering both drivers and cars would have made sense and would have been believable imo.

Yet, I still don't understand drivers like Webber. He is a good driver, he won and will win races, but he won't win the championship in this or any other car. He should have accepted by now that he's the number 2 driver in the top team, he's Red Bull's Coulthard/Barrichello/Massa/you name them. If he's not content with his role anymore (which didn't prevent him from becoming a millionaire), why didn't he leave prior to this season?

And, as I said before, Senna or Prost would have done the same as Vettel, with the difference that they wouldn't have apologized (but they would have thought instead: "Deal with it, no. 2! I put you where you belong."). Same for Lauda, Piquet, Mansell, Schumacher, Villeneuve, Hill, Alonso, Hamilton and other F1 champions. I wouldn't even rule out Häkkinen.

I agree with you. The problem is that none of the no.2s you mentioned would openly admit to being just that, a No.2.

Coulthard still lives in denial of it, Barricchello did his best to combat it and Webber refuses to openly accept it. The only one that does admit to it is Massa and even when he does it is a bit half-hearted.

In the heads of these No.2s they think (or thought) that they could still win a WDC. The general conception is that being a No.2 is for losers. Drivers with a lack of ambition. No one would admit to that. Not these days.

There have been plenty occasions that show Vettel is what he is, Turkey 2010, start of Japan 2011 and obviously Malaysia 2013 are clear examples.

Anyways, early *incaseiwontbearound* predics for China:

• Rosberg
• Raikonnen
• Webber
• DNF: Bottas

China in 3 weeks? I may not be around for it, so:

1. Rosberg (he won it last year)
2. Alonso
3. Hamilton

DNF- Vettel