Webber kept shoulder injury secret, Horner not amused

Mark Webber has raced the last 4 races of the season with a fractured shoulder after a mountain bike incident. The Australian kept the injury secret to his team and has only just revealed the issue to the public in a recent book he published.

Mark Webber was leading the championship at that time, and crashed with his mountain bike one week before the Japanese GP at Suzuka.

"On the Sunday morning before (the Japanese Grand Prix weekend at) Suzuka, I got on a mountain bike for the first time since my accident in Tasmania at the end of 2008."

"I was riding with a great friend of mine. Suddenly, he crashed right in front of me and I had nowhere to go but straight through the ears of the horse! I suffered what they call a skier's fracture to my right shoulder.

"Suzuka is a brutal track so it was a blessing that the Japanese weather gave me an enforced rest day on the Saturday (when qualifying was rained off), and a pre-race injection helped, too. In the end, we got through the weekend all right."

Webber's team principal at Red Bull meanwhile is not at all amused with the news: "It is obviously disappointing that Mark said nothing," admitted Horner. "It was an injury that did not appear to have any effect on his performance but all the same it would have been nice to know about it."

Horner also mentioned that the drivers have an obligation to stay fit, and given the 2008 incident that resulted in a serious leg injury for Webber, it would be better for Mark to stay away from bikes while he is in F1.

It appears that only FIA doctor Gary Hartstein and Webber's trainer Roger Cleary knew about the injury.

Perhaps even more interesting is to ask why Mark Webber held the injury secret from Red Bull Racing's team principal. Suggestions of internal issues won't be far away again, especially as Webber already had issues with team management halfway through the season where he felt as a second driver to Sebastian Vettel.