Mark Webber says his old Formula One team Red Bull had an agenda to make team-mate Sebastian Vettel happy.

Webber and Vettel endured one of Formula One's frostiest relationships as the German driver usurped Webber in the Red Bull hierarchy to go on and win four drivers' championships.

With David Coulthard's retirement, Webber effectively stood as Red Bull's number one driver when a bright-eyed Vettel was promoted from sister team Toro Rosso in 2009.

But, while the relationship between the two got off to a good start, Webber said it soured in 2010.

"I've just won the previous two grands prix from start to finish and then a new rear wing arrives and goes over to the other side of the garage. And I know for a fact the mechanics were furious," Webber told the ABC's Australian Story.

"You just think there was a bit of an agenda going on.

"They were very keen to keep [Vettel] probably a little bit happier because again, I was an old dog, I was the guy who was supposed to be a little bit washed up."

Webber's long-term partner and manager Ann Neal said she felt the team was more focused on Vettel.

"We got the impression that Sebastian wasn't happy with how things were going, this old Aussie was beating him and it wasn't really the way it was supposed to be," Neal said.

"They were letting these guys slug it out between them and a lot of the time the focus would come off of Mark. Even if he was leading the championship, winning races, the focus would be off Mark trying to get Sebastian back in to the battle."

However, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner said it was a difficult situation to manage.

"You are never going to keep both drivers totally 100 per cent happy and sometimes as a team principal you have to make difficult decisions," Horner said in 2010.

Warning: This story contains strong language

Rivalry comes to a head in contentious Malaysia overtake

Loading...

The relationship between the two drivers reached its nadir with the infamous "Multi 21" incident at the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2013.

With Webber in the lead, Vettel disobeyed a team order to maintain position and instead pulled off a risky overtaking move against Webber to win the race.

"The team after Multi-21 were disappointed, no question about it, they were shown how toothless they were," Webber said.

Tale of the team-mates (Statistics during drivers' careers at Red Bull) Webber v Vettel 129 Races 113 9 Wins 38 41 Podiums 65 13 Pole positions 44 0 Championships 4

"They couldn't handle us two out there on the track, which shouldn't be like that.

"[I was] furious with Seb, a little bit. But the whole scenario was just 'how did we get ourselves in that position?'

"It was a pretty brutal press conference after the race and on the podium. We got off the podium and he just came over and said 'we need to talk, I've just f***ed up, f***ed up so bad'.

"I said mate well, let's just talk, let's talk next week."

But the discussion with Vettel went sour.

"I don't know who spoke to him between Malaysia and China but we had a discussion in China and the discussion didn't go well," Webber said.

"He just said that he had massive respect for me as a driver but not so much as a person, so that really affected the relationship.

"At the time, we could hardly stand the sight of each other.

"[Red Bull] just needed something to change so, you know, I helped that decision for them and left."

Neal says Webber copped the blame for Turkey crash

Loading...

Webber's first F1 win, in his words "My first grand prix victory [Germany 2009] was the proudest moment probably in my career. "For my father to be there for my first win was super emotional. "It was funny because he had a steak the night before, he lost his front tooth, he said mate you won't believe it, I lost my front tooth, I said whatever, bullshit, because he's always, he's a practical joker. "He said dead set, I've got no front tooth so of all the days he wanted to smile like a Cheshire cat, he couldn't."

The drama between the two drivers started at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix when they crashed after Vettel tried to pass Webber for the lead.

"I think 99.9 per cent of the watching population knew that Sebastian was at fault," Neal said.

"The remainder blamed it on Mark and that included his team, which I was absolutely blown away by.

"The issues started to come because of poor team management really, letting him [Vettel] get away with things which, I just think, 'Really? You're going to let him get away with that?'"

Alan Jones, the Australian who won the 1980 Formula One world title, said there was always the perception the German driver received better treatment than Webber.

"The team is based in England but it's Austrian and German money that sponsor it," Jones said.

'Time is a healer': relationship now on the mend

Webber's debut race, in Minardi team owner Paul Stoddart's words Loading... "We knew the cars were marginal and it was going to be a tough weekend. And then of course the famous start, Schumacher first-turn incident, all the cars falling over each other, so you get excited because I saw both of ours get through. "You're thinking 'it's just not possible, can he possibly score a point?' What a point means to Minardi, it's so precious, it means so many millions of dollars. "When he crossed the line, I mean, that was just probably one of the greatest days of my life."

However, Webber said time had proved to be a healer, with the year-and-a-half since his retirement from F1 helping to thaw out the relationship between the former team-mates.

"Seb's trophy cabinet come out of it better than mine. But, I'm not jealous of him at all of what he achieved and what he's got," Webber said.

"Time is a healer, a few glasses of red wine here and there and, the grudges will be going.

"Seb and I are getting on pretty well actually, we had a good chat in Monaco, we've caught up a few times, it's interesting to see how he saw things from his perspective and how I saw things, obviously we have a lot of respect for each other.

"He said 'yes, that's what happened at the time'. He said 'yes, we all look back and say would we do things differently', and he says 'absolutely, yes'."

Red Bull was approached by Australian Story but declined an interview. Sebastian Vettel agreed to an interview but Australian Story was unable to coordinate with his schedule.