Mark Webber injured a shoulder in the last four races

And here's the news you don't expect.
The 2010 season finale was marked, among others, by Mark Webber's loss of competitiveness. “He's not a champion”, “He doesn't know how to handle pressure”, “If he wins it's only thanks to the car, he's poor”. Three weeks after the end of the World Championship, won by teammate Sebastian Vettel, a particular shock emerges. That is to say the news of an injury (there is even talk of a fracture) to his right shoulder, suffered shortly before the Suzuka race, which would have penalized the Australian driver's performance in the last four decisive races.

Mountain Bike, what a passion... even too much
As many will remember, Webber was involved in a serious cycling accident after the end of the 2008 season in which he suffered a fracture of his left shoulder and right leg. Fortunately he was then able to rehabilitate in time for the start of the 2009 world championship.

Now another injury, right in the middle of the 2010 world title fight.
In his official book “Up Front: a season to remember”, the 34-year-old Australian revealed that he was injured upon returning home after the Singapore GP at the end of September. The problem was defined as not particularly serious but at the same time difficult to treat, as it deeply affected the shoulder joint.
Furthermore, a probable intervention would be the reason for Mark's absence from the tests with Pirelli tires following the last GP of the season.

The book also tells how the driver did not report anything to his team principal Chris Horner, but only informed his trainer Roger Clearly and the FIA ​​doctor Gary Hartstein of the injury, who allegedly administered cortisone injections to Webber to allow him to race in Japan and Korea.

“I was running with a great friend of mine when, suddenly, he fell in front of me and I couldn't do anything to avoid it”

“Suzuka is a very difficult track for the body, and the forced stop on Saturday (due to torrential rain on the track) allowed me to rest a little longer. The pre-race infiltrations then helped me face the GP"

These are two of the pilot's statements.

Considerations
1) First of all. Passion for mountain bikes is fine. Who doesn't have any besides their job? However, given the experience of two years ago, and given the situation in the world championship (Webber was still at the top of the standings after Singapore), was there really this need to risk one's bones? There's no two without three, but let's hope that on the next lap Mark will think about it a few more times before going crazy on two wheels.

2) As Mark himself said, Chris Horner was not informed of the problem. The reason may be quite clear. Webber's thought may have been that, if the news had spread, within a team in which one of the two drivers is the "protege" (and it is certainly not Mark) there would have been no more history and not even the advantage in the standings would have been seen as a justification to support him in the chase for the title.

3) On the other hand, however, are we sure that no one had noticed? Mark's decline in performance was quite evident in the last part of the season. Apart from Yeongam's blunder, Webber never came close to Vettel in terms of speed and consistency, which was what happened in the first part of the year. F1 lives on telemetries and comparisons between them. If we reflect, we can also hypothesize that, within the can team, a telemetrist noticed some problems in left turns (where the movement of the right shoulder is more accentuated to turn the steering wheel). And therefore the upper levels, informed, focused even more on Sebastian (you will understand what an effort...), aware that Mark's problems would inexorably jeopardize the results. In any case, Horner & co. they were right.

4) This background changes some balances. How would it have ended without a broken shoulder? Webber did, however, obtain two second places. One in Japan (unbelievable at this point) and one in Brazil. In Korea, where he still had a good lead in the standings over Vettel, he crashed. In Abu Dhabi, however, he remained to helplessly watch the fight between Alonso, who arrived in front of him, and Petrov.

5) How should pilots' passions outside of work be managed? Nice dilemma. We could ask Robert Kubica since, as we know, he is a lover of rallies and he tries his hand at some tests with good results, even during the year. Of course, in general an accident can happen, you cannot expect a driver to stay in bed outside of racing to avoid the risk of getting hurt. On the other hand, however, a little more foresight on the part of team managers and especially drivers wouldn't hurt.

Conclusion
We cannot say with certainty that, without this injury, Webber would have become World Champion. There are so many variables at play that nothing can be ruled out. What is certain, however, is that the Australian's performances would probably have been different, perhaps in line with those of the first part of the season. And it is all in all a disappointment for this boy, because at 34 years old this could have been the first and last opportunity for him to become Champion (a bit like what happened to Felipe Massa in 2008), and the regret of having lost him also due to of an all in all avoidable variable could remain for a long time.

Alessandro Secchi – F1Grandprix