Webber-Seb relationship ‘more positive’

Mark Webber has revealed that his relationship with Sebastian Vettel has "taken a big positive turn" since he left F1, adding "they have a great deal of respect for each other".

Webber and Vettel were the first to admit that they were never good friends when they became Red Bull team-mates in 2009, but they enjoyed a good working relationship during the first year or so.

However, things turned frosty from 2010 with the Australian claiming the team favoured Vettel. By 2013 it was nearly all out war after Vettel ignored team orders not to over his team-mate at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Webber decided to leave Formula 1 at the end of that season and he recently released a book, Aussie Grit, which looked closely at his time at Red Bull and the tension with Vettel.

However, in an interview with Motorsport.com, the 38-year-old admits his relationship with Vettel has changed now that they no longer compete for the same team or in the same motorsport category.

"Irrespective of whether he drives for Red Bull or not, I think the relationship would have taken a big positive turn," he said.

"We were going for each other's territory at the time at Red Bull, so it wasn't an easy situation to handle.

"We learnt a huge amount about ourselves, me at the end of my career and Seb at the start of his. Things moved on very fast inside that relationship, in terms of how we used to compete against each other.

"Now I'm out of Formula 1, and things continue to change fast. I don't have many enemies in my life, if any at all. We have a great deal of respect for each other.

"We ultimately did while we were racing against each other too, but probably a bit more now."