Gerhard Berger has added yet another voice to the controversy surrounding Sebastian Vettel’s crash with Mark Webber during the recent Turkish grand prix.
After a clear-the-air meeting last week, Red Bull Racing said the issue had been put to rest.
But at the same time, while the energy drink company’s chief Dietrich Mateschitz has remained quiet, figures close to him including Helmut Marko and former FIA president Max Mosley said it was Australian Webber who was to blame.
Team orders in F1 are not allowed, but it is rumoured that Red Bull would prefer if the young German Vettel, 22, win the 2010 title rather than the championship-leading Webber.
Now Berger, the first Red Bull-backed sportsman and also the former owner of the company’s junior team Toro Rosso, has pointed a finger of blame at 33-year-old Webber.
"That Webber left him (Vettel) only the dirty bit of the track was at first legitimate," he is quoted by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
"But when Vettel was half a car length ahead, Mark needed to realise that he should give his teammate some air to breathe.
"Webber could have prevented the accident," former ten-time GP winner Berger charges.
"Had Vettel been in a McLaren, then Webber could have done what he did. In that case, he must not give way."