There have been several high-profile examples of Vettel-style disobedience.
Williams asked Carlos Reutemann to cede to team-mate Alan Jones during the
1981 Brazilian GP, but he chose to ignore the messages on his pit board. The
same applied in France one year later, when René Arnoux continued to lead
despite Renault’s request that he should back off to assist team-mate Alan
Prost’s title challenge. And in the 1982 San Marino GP, Gilles Villeneuve
felt duped when Ferrari team-mate Didier Pironi nipped ahead during the
closing laps, despite the team having asked them to maintain position. Two
weeks later, Villeneuve – still outraged – was killed when he crashed during
practice for the Belgian GP.
Malaysia was hardly the first time Red Bull’s radio channels have been worth
scanning. Just three races ago, in Brazil, Webber was asked to move over
because the team felt he was making Vettel’s life unnecessarily hard. At the
time, the German was carving through the field during his ultimately
successful pursuit of a third world title.
The difference, that afternoon, was that Webber complied.
Simon Arron is features editor of Motor Sport magazine