Webber unveils troubled relationship with Red Bull

Mark Webber has commented on the situation within Red Bull Racing before he left the team, unveiling that he drifted away from Christian Horner and that his relationship with Sebastian Vettel was very difficult.

The critical comments were posted on Mark Webber's website but have today been removed again.

The Australian admits that his once solid relationship with team boss Christian Horner has faded away, even though he still shares ownership of a GP3 team with him.

"We are probably not as close now as we once were", Webber said. "Christian is going to be with the team for a long time – indefinitely, you'd imagine, unless he gets an approach from somewhere else – so he's got to make sure that he tries to keep everything as smooth as possible."

"In some cases that hasn't been something which might have benefitted me. That's put a stress on the relationship."

Of Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing's advisor and public defender of Sebastian Vettel, Webber said the Austrian had been very critical of him since day one and that he's still unsure about the exact role of Marko within the team. Webber suggested Marko would likely have preferred to run Red Bull Racing with just one car, driven by Sebastian Vettel.

The situation with Vettel was similarly strained, even though he believes that the new four-time world champion is "phenomenally gifted".

"We know that his strength is qualifying and the first five laps of the race. That's his signature punch. That's the hardest part to control," said Webber.

Hs personal relationship with the German is much less of a positive picture.

"There's so much water under the bridge between us that it's hard to think of more positives than negatives. That's a bit disappointing because you want to keep everyone in a respectful light, and give them as big a chance as possible, for as long as you can. But I think there's probably too much that's gone on between us. Maybe when we're 50-odd things will be different but with what we've been through it's hard to draw a line under too much of it," said Webber.