Webber: No need to tell team about shoulder

Red Bull's Mark Webber has defended his decision not to tell Team Principal Christian Horner about the shoulder injury he sustained prior to the Japanese Grand Prix, and has said the reason he kept quiet is because it didn’t affect his performance behind the wheel of the RB6.

News that the Aussie was nursing a fracture to his right shoulder during the final four grand’s prix, broke this week when his new book, 'Up Front - 2010, A Season To Remember', went on sale in his home country.

Webber, who eventually lost out on the title and finished third in this years’ championship, told his personal website though, that it only generated so much press interest as it must have been ‘a fairly quiet week news-wise’.

“A little bit of information can be a dangerous thing!” he continued. “I came off a mountain bike while training between the races in Singapore and Japan, and an X-ray revealed a small fracture to my right shoulder. I was very confident it wouldn’t affect my performance in the car, which is why I didn’t tell anyone.

“Many people will be aware that shoulder injuries can be complex but I was lucky this mishap didn’t affect my main line of work. In that sense, that was the most important thing to me.

“The shoulder wasn’t causing me a problem, so there was no need to talk about it to anyone. If I’d had any issues with it in the car, then of course I would have told the team. But that wasn’t the case. I’ve never missed a Grand Prix but of course if I couldn’t drive the car (a) safely and (b) on the limit, I would have notified the team.”

Asked if he has had an operation on his shoulder since the end of the season, as has been reported by some sources, Webber said that is not true: “No I haven’t, so I can’t imagine where those stories came from,” he continued.

“Some people have asked whether the shoulder was the reason I didn’t do the Abu Dhabi tyre test in November, but it had nothing to do with it. I was never down to do that test.”

As for why the information has only just come into the public domain, Webber explained that is what his new book is all about.

“I wanted to give the readers in Australia a closer insight to a sport that’s pretty hard for them to follow. I didn’t sit down after the season had finished with hindsight goggles on and pick and choose what went into it. We did it at the time after each race,” he added.

“It [the injury] is something that happened to me, it was part of my journey this season, so that’s why it’s in there.”