Motor racing insiders, especially of the Formula One ilk, have been telling us for years that the already fractured working relationship (there’s never been a personal one, has there?) between Red Bull’s two star drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, would one day boil over into something potentially team-shattering. The “not bad for a number-two driver” quip by Webber a few years back over his team’s intercom destroyed any fantasy we had that the whole Red Bull civil unrest thing was purely media driven. Vettel’s latest stunt, then, of ignoring team orders for the one-and-two placed drivers not to combat each other for the chequered flag at last weekend’s Malaysian GP blew any hope that the two drivers had any respect for each other out of the water.

But you know what, as catastrophic and as prickly as their relationship is, these two stars always seem to be up towards the front of the grid, with not much in front of them, say for the other, and maybe a pesky Ferrari or McLaren here or there too. Could it be that Webber and Vettel’s clashing personalities and approaches to their craft are what’s really driving the success of this still relatively new team? Admittedly, they’re piloting two of the best cars on the grid, but how would things be at Red Bull with two buddies lovingly encouraging each other to do their best, wishing each other luck, slapping each other on the back after a hard day’s racing? The ruthless dynamic that exists now might not be there, and that killer instinct to win both drivers have (mainly to beat the other) surely couldn’t survive between two close mates on and off the track.

If this was an AFL or NRL club set-up, we’d be reading headlines about team disharmony, and player anger at team management for not getting rid of the source of such fractured circumstances. In Red Bull’s case though, this disrespectful, ultra-competitive and potentially poisonous combination might just be as important as a really really fast car …