Webber loses patience with car systems
BUDAPEST: Australian Mark Webber slammed his Red Bull team on Saturday after suffering what he called ongoing ‘stupid and embarrassing’ problems with his car in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
While his Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel was beaten to pole by a sizzling lap from Briton Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes, Webber was giving vent to his frustration.
Electronic problems once again played havoc with his efforts and prevented his car’s Kers from working and upset the car’s gearshift system. Webber battled the problems and made his way through the first two parts of qualifying, but did not run in the top-10 shoot-out and qualified 10th.
‘‘Kers, gearbox, you name it,’’ he said. ‘‘Driving the car so far off the potential is unbelievable and so massively frustrating. It’s stupid, it’s embarrassing and it’s a brutal circuit to be out of position. We should be challenging for the front row and we’re bloody 10th.
‘‘All the effort — and it’s two weekends on the bounce you get that.’’
Webber is widely regarded as the unluckiest man in the pit-lane by paddock regulars after suffering a series of car problems.
‘‘It’s a long race and things need to be functioning correctly,’’ he said. ‘‘Kers was 50 percent [of the problem] and there were other things.’’