Legality questions anger Webber

Mark Webber has hit out at critics who suggested Red Bull Racing’s two victories this season were scored with an illegal car following the FIA’s recent ruling that the team’s vented floor can no longer be used.

No teams protested Sebastian Vettel’s Bahrain win in April or Webber’s victory in Monaco a fortnight ago, but with several outfits expressing concerns about the technology, the FIA examined the floor again and last week ruled that it was not legal. That led to speculation that the British-Austrian team could be stripped of their two wins, a suggestion Webber bridled at ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

“In relation to winning races with an illegal car, I’m happy to be called lots of things and I’m happy to have criticism about my driving and lots of stuff, but I will not take criticism in that respect,” he said during Thursday’s official FIA press conference. “It completely p***** me off to be honest, because the car has passed every single technical regulation after the race.

“All of the teams that were against it did not make any protest after Monaco, the car passed the test after Bahrain, the car passed the test after Monaco and now there has been a clarification on the rule, and the rule now is different,” he added. “We had a car that was legal for the first part of the season and now the rule has been changed and we will start again, so looking forward to it.”

Asked if the need to change the floor for upcoming races would harm the team’s prospects in the coming weeks Webber insisted that the team was planning a change anyway.

“I would not know if the floor is changed or unchanged, so on the driving side, we’re very optimistic that the change won’t make much difference at all,” he said. “You won’t believe us but we had some changes for Valencia anyway which included no hole, irrespective of the rule change, so that’s what we were doing.”