Red Bull has apologised to Daniel Ricciardo after admitting that he was disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix as a result of having a ‘Mark spec’ fuel flow meter.

‘The mechanics were tired from getting the car ready, they heard an Aussie accent in the cockpit, without thinking they fitted the Webber-grade part,’ admitted an insider. ‘That is to say, a part that isn’t as good as the one on the other car and can be used to punish Mark if he dares to beat Sebastian.’

Red Bull sources say that the race was already in progress by the time they remembered that Mark Webber no longer drives for them and there is no need to engineer-in reliability glitches or strategic failures in order to enact an ongoing series of crushing disappoints and public humiliations.

‘Daniel is new to the team and we must do everything we can to support him at this early stage,’ a Red Bull source said. ‘If he’s faster than Seb we’re certainly not going to crush his spirit…yet.’