Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner has insisted that his two drivers will not bear any grudges for the rest of the Formula One season, despite their controversial mid-race clash at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul Park over the weekend.
Both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel protested their innocence over the accident after the race, which pitched Vettel into retirement and cost Webber the lead of the race.
After a front wing change, the Australian driver managed to salvage third place.
But despite the controversy of two team mates colliding, and the drivers and team members split on where to apportion blame for the accident, Horner says that the team will put the matter to bed before the next race.
"The most important thing, and I have had this situation before with drivers in different formulas, is to get issues out into the open, deal with them and that is exactly what we will do here," Horner was quoted as saying by Autosport.
"There is no animosity between the drivers. They are both competitive. They are both hungry animals, and it is down to us to ensure that they learn from this and it doesn't happen again."
He added that he felt that both drivers would "learn" from the incident, and realise that no matter who was to blame for the incident, the main problem was the loss of points for the team.
Red Bull were on course for a second consecutive 1-2 finish in Istanbul prior to the accident, but the clash gifted a 1-2 finish to their rival McLaren team instead.
"I think both drivers will look at it, they will reflect on it, and it is important they learn from it," Hormer hummed.
"They represent a whole team and Red Bull when they are out their driving, and they know that what has happened has cost not only themselves but the team, and Red Bull, a lot of points."
Horner also continued to take a diplomatic line on assigning blame for the incident, saying that both drivers needed to show more restraint when fighting each other on track.
"They should never have been where they were on the circuit," he muttered glumly, "It needs both of them to realise. You need a bit of co-operation from both, and they both played hard ball and we saw the net result."
Horner's line clashes with that of Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, who went against the general consensus of opinion that saw Vettel take the brunt of the blame for the clash to blame the accident on Webber.
That has led to suspicions in the media and from F1 fans that the Red Bull team is favouring their young German driver over Webber, despite the Australian having been stronger than Vettel in the last three races to take the lead of the championship.
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