Red Bull have unsurprisingly confirmed that Mark Webber will have to defer to Sebastian Vettel for as long as he remains in with a mathematical chance of the drivers championship, after Webber's own title hopes evaporated following a disastrous run of form.
Webber hasn't scored a single point since the Hungarian Grand Prix in August, and spent last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix mired at the back of the field following a practice crash, a start from the pit lane and a series of early pit stops to fix a loose headrest.
And now, with only Vettel retaining any hope of bringing home the drivers championship for Red Bull Racing, team boss Christian Horner has confirmed that the strict "no favouritism" policy from earlier in the season has been dispensed with, and that Webber will now be asked to drive with Vettel's championship hopes in mind.
Vettel lies third in the standings, some 16 points points behind championship leader Jenson Button, with only 20 points left to play for in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. The German needs to finish in the top two in Brazil next weekend and hope that Button finishes well down the order to have any hope of taking his chamces down to the final race.
But he will at least have support from Webber, with Horner telling the German media that: "Mark is a team player and understands that he must now support Sebastian."
Webber's understandably delighted response to the news was to say simply: "If the team asks me to, I will drive for Sebastian."
The ability to potentially use Webber as a race spoiler gives Vettel his only real advantage over Button, whose own team mate Rubens Barrichello is still in the title hunt, 14 points back from the Brit, and is therefore unwilling to perform his own traditional Boobens role for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, in other Red Bull news, jobless Kimi Raikkonen's manager has moved to quash some rather silly rumours that Red Bull were planning to bring the Finn to their team for 2010 at the expense of Webber.
"There is only a connection [with Red Bull is] as a beverage partner," Steve Robertson shouted at Finnish television, "We are talking with several teams [for 2010] and Red Bull is not among them."
The 2007 champion is believed to still be in discussions with former team McLaren and Toyota, after being paid off by Ferrari following their signing of Fernando Alonso for 2010.
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