Gerhard Berger: Webber was trying to take out Alonso or Hamilton

[CaptainRaiden]

Link: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2...o-or-hamilton/

Former F1 winner and F1 team owner Gerhard Berger has claimed Mark Webber knew exactly what he was doing when he collected Nico Rosberg after crashing out of the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday - although he believes the Aussie was aiming for someone else, namely one of his title rivals.

Webber had gone into the seventeenth round in the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship, leading the title race, 14 points up on Fernando Alonso. However his mistake in the early stages when he got caught out by the tricky conditions cost him dear. He now drops to second in the standings, 11 points off the top.

Speaking to Servus TV, Berger said Webber could easily have avoided coming back onto the track after hitting the wall.

"He could have hit the brakes and stopped the car at the wall," said Berger, who raced in F1 from 1984-1997, winning ten grand’s prix during spells with teams such as McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton. "He took out [Nico] Rosberg, but it was the wrong one. I think in his mind he would have preferred Alonso or [Lewis] Hamilton.

“It was very clear [what he was trying to do]. He goes off and he knows it's over. In this moment you're frustrated and a thousand thoughts go through your head. It's very obvious, you can see his wheels are not locked up. Perhaps he had a brake problem, but I don't think so."

Rosberg, who had fought his way up to fourth in his Mercedes, was similarly suspicious: "I don't understand why Webber didn't hit the brakes. It was crazy to roll back across the track like that.

“It was really difficult to judge which way Mark's car would go and I took the decision to go left but he spun more and more that way and I just couldn't avoid him. It's a real shame," Rosberg added.

I think Berger and Rosberg are smoking something. Between his error and the time he hit Rosberg, there was hardly 3 seconds, and plus the car was carrying momentum. Even if he would have stood on the brakes, the car would have slid across a wet track anyway.

Discuss

[CaptainRaiden]

Video of the crash:

[youtube]cTno1fuf-0M[/youtube]

[Mark]

Agreed, complete nonsense. People are always keen to attribute malice to events that occur over a handful of seconds, no time to think in that situation.

[turismo6]

I didn't think much at first, but if you look at Webber's front wheels after he bounced off the wall they are turned in...

[Daniel]

I thought the same as Berger before (that Webber failed to not steer back onto the circuit) untill I saw the replay and saw that his rear suspension was broken from the crash and one of his front wheels wasn't touching the ground and therefore he had no control over the thing.

[pino]

This is just ridiculos ! When you have such an incident you're only concentrate in stopping and get off the car as fast as possible.

[Daniel]

Calm down Pino no one actually agrees with Berger :P

[Dave B]

I want some of whatever Berger's on, that's an utterly stupid thing for him to say. I doubt Webber will even dignify this with a response.

[mike.flynn]

Webber's not the type of driver to that on purpose, he know's rolling back across the track could have the potential to kill someone, (i know the cars are strong as ever, but anything could happen) he wouldn't put other drivers lives in danger. What Berger is saying is completely disrespectful to Webber!

[Daniel]

Webber's not the type of driver to that on purpose, he know's rolling back across the track could have the potential to kill someone, (i know the cars are strong as ever, but anything could happen) he wouldn't put other drivers lives in danger. What Berger is saying is completely disrespectful to Webber!

He drove into the back of Kovalainen on purpose though