Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert feels Mark Webber's inability to beat his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel is "hurting" the 2011 Championship.
Many fear the 2011 Drivers' title is already over after defending World Champion Vettel opened a 77-point gap at the top of the standings with six wins in eight races so far this year.
Although he is joint second in the standings with 109 points, Webber has struggled to challenge, let alone match his team-mate this campaign. This is in stark contrast to 2010 when the Australian went toe-to-toe with Vettel right until final few races of the season.
Writing in his column for Abu Dhabi's The National paper, Herbert said Webber's failure compete with Vettel is not good for the Championship.
"This is not the first time that one marque has had an edge over the rest of the field, but it does become a problem when only one of those drivers is claiming wins and is consistently beating their team-mate," he wrote.
"And that is what has happened this year as Vettel has finished in front of Webber in every race this season.
"It has hurt the Championship as the man best placed to challenge the World Champion has ultimately provided no competition."
Herbert added that Webber has failed to show the aggressive attitude which helped him to four race victories last season.
"Webber was more of a match for the German for much of last season and that caused conflict within the team," he continued.
"This led to the Australian's infamous comment after winning the British Grand Prix last year, "Not bad for a No 2 driver".
"But we have seen none of that aggressive attitude from Webber this season.
"I do not know if he has a problem with the car or the set-up, but if you look back he has not been the same since he lost last year's Drivers' Championship in Abu Dhabi.
"He did not perform then and he has not performed this year compared to Vettel and that has been a big disappointment for me."
Webber finished third in Sunday's European Grand Prix and described it as "probably my best race of the year" afterwards, but Herbert feels the 34-year-old's statement proves that he's lacking fire.
"He was probably taking the public relations line, but the Webber of last season would not have been so positive about being third, and finishing again behind his team-mate," Herbert wrote.
"He is showing none of the fire that he showed last season, which helped him fight Vettel and make the Championship so exciting. Until he finds it again I do not see him competing for wins."
