China: Mark Webber to blame for BAR's performance

By Phil Huff
October 16 2005

A disappointing conclusion to the 2005 Formula One World Championship saw BAR Honda secure just a single point, but the blame has been firmly placed at Williams driver Mark Webber's feet.

Nick Fry, BAR Honda's Chief Executive Officer, was vocal about his frustration at Webber's tactics under the safety car, where Webber took a leaf out of McLaren's tactics in Belgium and held up the field.

"Under a safety car situation you're only allowed to drop back five car lengths," explained an irritated Fry. "He [Webber] dropped back by over 20, bottling Jenson up which meant we lost a lot of time in the pits. We've talked to the FIA about it - they're saying they're going to look at it after the race which to us is really not fair.

"Mark should be taking some sort of penalty now during the race," continued Fry, "but it appears they're too busy to do something about it. We're not happy at all."

Should Webber get a post-race penalty, usually of 25 seconds, then he'll drop back from seventh to 10th. Jenson Button will then rise from eight to seventh, netting the team an extra point.