Red Bull's Brazil drama a good example why teams should not hound drivers - Webber

Mark Webber believes his former team, Red Bull, surprised Max Verstappen with team orders back at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

There we saw the first real bust-up between Verstappen and Sergio Perez as Red Bull drivers, the team asking Verstappen to yield P6 to Perez to help him make it a Red Bull one-two in the Drivers' Championship. Verstappen refused, and Perez was understandably irate after the race.

But, with Verstappen telling Red Bull that they knew his reasons for what he did, in the following days, both the team and Perez said the issue had blown over and that it was one big happy camp once more.

Hindsight is wonderful

And while Webber says hindsight is always a wonderful thing in Formula 1, he feels that Red Bull caught Verstappen a little off-guard with their communication.

"Team principals are always managing dynamics between the drivers, and it is very easy to handle that when you're not battling for wins or championship position," said Webber on Speedcafe.com's KTM Summer Grill.

"For the top four or top five, there's generally no real friction between the drivers, and management has an easier ride on it, [but it changes] when there are championships or championship positions at stake between the two drivers.

"The team principal goes on a journey too - they haven't got all the answers.

"In our day, it was the first experience of it for Christian [Horner, team principal], Sebastian [Vettel], myself and Red Bull itself. They were some challenging times, but that is the nature of the beast.

"In hindsight, there are decisions that you could do differently and better for the team or one driver in particular, but [F1] is great at hindsight.

"[The team] can't press the pause button in the middle of the race. The