Some distance may have crept into their relationship, but Mark Webber insists there is no tension between himself and fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.<\/p>\n
Ricciardo, the 22-year-old who has stepped up from HRT last year to the full-time Toro Rosso race seat for 2012, told the Melbourne Age newspaper that Webber – at the senior team Red Bull – is keeping his distance despite earlier easing his transition into the world of F1.<\/p>\n
The feeling in the F1 paddock is that Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko is grooming Ricciardo and Toro Rosso’s other new driver Jean-Eric Vergne to potentially succeed Webber as world champion Sebastian Vettel’s next teammate.<\/p>\n
As for the distance between him and Webber now that they are in competition for the same seat, Ricciardo said: “I guess he’s still got his career now and his things to worry about — I’ll try not to get in his way too much.<\/p>\n
“And, you know, now we are on the same route together, maybe he doesn’t want to tell me too much but that is completely understandable.”<\/p>\n
35-year-old Webber, however, insisted there is no real tension with his countryman.<\/p>\n
“Not at all, you know, I’ve been through enough on and off the track to know that nothing is forever,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I was supposed to be replaced by Kimi (Raikkonen) four years ago,” he laughed, referring to the notorious F1 rumour-mill.<\/p>\n
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