Christian Horner refuted implications that there could be a conspiracy at Red Bull as Mark Webber suffered a disastrous weekend in China. The Australian was the center of controversy after the Malaysian Grand Prix where his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, disobeyed team orders and took the win from Webber's pre-race plans. Webber suffered a horrible weekend in China with a DNF after his right rear wheel fell off his car and this came after his penalty during qualifying for not having enough fuel on board his Red Bull RB9 chassis.
Webber was also penalized for running into Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne and handed a penalty for an unsafe release from the pits with a poorly secured wheel. This miserable weekend prompted some fans to suggest that there is a conspiracy at Red Bull to scuttle Mark's efforts in favor of Vettel. Horner said that is rubbish:
"That is complete rubbish," he said. "Forget conspiracy. It is all about trying to get two cars to finish as high as we can.
"Anybody that thinks there is a conspiracy here against one, or either, driver doesn't know what they are looking at."
"Mark knows exactly what happened. That is it. There is no conspiracy."
"It [the car] will be stripped back down at Milton Keynes and investigated there," said Horner.
A team may have a favorite driver but to scuttle a second driver's race by not fitting wheels properly or not putting enough fuel in a car is just nonsensical. The team spends way too much money on competing in Formula One and to suggest they'd purposefully seek DNF's for one of its cars is just silly. The feud between drivers has been smoldering since 2010 and there is little question that team overlord Dr. Helmut Marko favors Vettel but the team like Webber as well and have given him the opportunity for success.
Webber has been the master of his own bad luck throughout his career at Red Bull as well and Sunday's clash with Jean-Eric Vergne is an example of his aggressive style that has awarded him with misfortune as well.