Oh, I understand precisely what he meant. I understand the intention of such a statement, too.
Intego wrote:WB has clearly spoken of "conspiracy theorists", this doesn't imply that it's his belief. Also this theory wouldn't necessarily be "support backmarkers with crap, because they will be title contenders in a few years", but could be "don't solve the issues right now".
I think it was more down to devitalize such an argument.
PS: WB was not so wrong on assuming that a CT could come up. E.g. the Massa gearbox case: the whole world knew (and Ferrari openly admitted) that the seal was broken to put Alonso and eventually Massa on the clean side of the track. German "RTL" made a conspiracy dance, asked Marko if he believed that Massa really had gearbox problems etc.
Do we need a lesson on how rumor mills work? Or innuendo?
Do not think about an elephant on a bicycle!!! (Now, what's the first thing that popped into your mind?)
And what's conspiratorial about something that's openly admitted? At that point, I'd call it a tactic, one that's no different than "Mark, maintain the gap," which, it should be said, happened when Vettel had a commanding lead in the Championship last year (and after he'd been given Webber's front wing). Am I to believe it's impossible that something similar happened behind the scenes this year when such help would actually be useful? C'mon.
Team orders have been around for as long as there have been teams in motorsport. It is what it is. However, that's a far cry from the insinuation that, either directly or indirectly, one team is tampering with another team's equipment. If anyone else had made that statement, or if it was the first time the offending poster said something baseless and untoward about a certain Italian team, I could easily dismiss it. But, this is all part and parcel for someone who often stirs --- up just for the sake of stirring --- up, especially when it concerns red cars. The pathology is very clear here.
