Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr V
Yet Mark, and Felipe in Ferrari's case, come back for more.
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Two VERY different situations, and two different contracts. One was told, and he
knew he would be playing number two, and signed on. One was told, and he
believed he was equal number one, and signed on.
If you want to compare Felipe and Mark, at least Ferrari have been upfront and have made it clear to both drivers who is number one. Red Bull on the other hand, have always said both drivers get equal status, but have favoured one (at least since their junior driver was promoted). If RBR didn't pretend that Mark had equal status, it wouldn't have been as disruptive I believe. They should've been upfront and told Webber he was number two. Better than Webber telling the world over the radio what most of the F1 world knew anyway.
Why would Red Bull favour their development driver over a driver that had nothing to do with the RBR driver development programme? If Mark beat Seb to a WDC, that would have made a mockery of their driver development programme. The best image for Red Bull Racing's junior programme was to make their junior driver win almost everything. Not the outsider. Even if the outsider happened to be the better driver.
Without a doubt, I believe Mark was the better driver in '09-'11. I feel midway of 2011, something changed with Mark. I have no doubt that if he could have, Mark would have left F1 at the end of 2011. But the hunger was still there to be an F1 race driver. That hunger kept him coming back for more until his mind was made up for him, and not the other way around. He is definitely leaving F1 way too early.
Anyways, this thread is about Ricciardo vs Ricciardo, so....