Webber slams 'embarrassing' F1 development

MarkWebber

Australian Webber finished third in the F1 drivers' championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013 as number two behind four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Webber has participated in the World Endurance Championship in 2014 with Porsche Team, and said competing in F1 was not something he missed.

The 38-year-old said he has not closely followed the season, which sees Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg vying for the title in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

"It's been a few months since I saw an entire race on TV," Webber told Salzburger Nachrichten.

"Recently in Brazil, I was driving a car, listening to the radio. Eighty-five per cent of the transmission was about tyres. 

"There's frustration - [from] the driver as well as the fans. Drivers can no longer represent their performance potential. 

"[Then there is] DRS, which is always embarrassing for one. The cars and the technology were, to mid-2000s, just different. 

"The development of the last three or four years was no customer service to the fans. 

"Four pit stops, who is familiar there?"

Webber also slammed the idea of Max Verstappen driving for Toro Rosso in 2015, at age 17.

"I do not know if people want to pay 400 Euros for a ticket to go to see 17-year-olds," Webber continued. 

"Perhaps one is okay, but if there are four or five, it is very extreme. 

"We had similar cases in the past, as Fernando [Alonso] or Kimi [Raikkonen] came into Formula One. 

"They were specifically [selected] and won the day. But the cars then were much more difficult, especially physically. The probability of failure was much greater. 

"Today it is almost embarrassing when an F1 car drives out of the box."

Author(s)