Mark Webber has only himself to blame for his spectacular collision in the European Grand Prix. The crash happened when his Red Bull-Renault struck the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus-Cosworth on lap nine of the race. The impact flipped the Red Bull as it rode over the back of the Lotus, did a 180-degree turn before hitting the ground upside down and then flipping back over and sliding into the barriers at high speed. Webber was lucky to escape unhurt, but ultimately the incident was down to him.
I heard David Coulthard, a fellow former Formula One driver, say on televisioncoverage of the race that the accident was caused by the hugely contrasting speeds of the Red Bull and the Lotus and that something needed to be done about having slower cars in the field to prevent this kind of incidents from happening. I completely disagree. There is obviously a huge difference in the speed of the Red Bull, which is the fastest car in the field, and the Lotus, which is one of the new teams this season, who are regularly two seconds off the pace and rarely get out of the first part of qualifying.
When there is such a gap in performance it is down to the drivers to analyse and judge things, and Webber simply got it wrong. He was driving like he was racing Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari and did not leave himself any margin for error. The Lotus is not as good a car as the Red Bull and cannot brake as late and Webber did not allow for the fact that Kovalainen was going to brake much earlier than he was and this led to the contact.
The teams at the back have received a lot of criticism this season for their lack of pace, with teams such as Ferrari even saying they should not be on the grid. This will not help the defence argument but Kovalainen and Lotus did absolutely nothing wrong in this case. They were racing because Webber had made a poor start from second place on the grid and then pitted early in an attempt to make up time and places by driving in clear air.
He had fallen behind Kovalainen and was racing him for position when the accident happened. It was clear that Webber was going to overtake him, but that did not mean Kovalainen had to cede the position or move out of the way. He is a racing driver and Lotus is a racing team and they had every right to battle with Webber and Red Bull as this is Formula One and no one should just hand over a place. Webber simply miscalculated where the Lotus was going to brake and he paid for it with the accident. This has dented his championship hopes, with Sebastian Vettel, his teammate, winning, and the two McLaren-Mercedes' of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button completing the podium.
It is a strange sensation as a racing driver when you are involved in a big accident. I only ever flipped over once in my career and that was in Japan in F3000 early in my career. You do not have time to panic as you are going over, you stay calm and prepare for the impact. It is almost as if everything slows down and all that really goes through your mind is that it is going to be a big one and you prepare yourself mentally for the impact.
Webber said in his interview after the race that his thought had been that it was going to be a big one and that sums it up well in my view. It is a credit to the modern Formula One car that he was able to walk away unhurt from the impact. The only real risk in a Formula One car if it overturns is if your arms come flailing out, but you could see on the replays that Webber stayed calm and kept his hands on the steering wheel throughout the crash.
It is not the first time that Webber has flipped in a car as I remember it happening to him at Le Mans a few years ago before he broke into Formula One and, like on Sunday, he walked away from that unhurt. The only thing that will be hurting for Webber are his championship dreams and he will need to bounce back at the next round in Britain on July 11. He is now 24 points behind Hamilton in the standings in fourth place, but he goes well at Silverstone and will be confident of a good points haul there.
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