Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists Mark Webber's pit-stop strategy in Abu Dhabi was "worth a roll of the dice".
Webber was battling Jenson Button for the final podium finish on Sunday but a slow first pit stop forced Red Bull to change their strategy. Instead of the normal two-stopper, they kept him on the soft compound at the second stop and then switched to the medium rubber on the penultimate lap. It meant the Australian had to put the foot down while on the soft compound to open a big enough gap to Button.
However, he failed to do it and had to settle for fourth place.
"It was a situation where, because of the issue [of a slow tyre change] at the first stop, we were behind Jenson and Felipe [Massa]," Horner said. "If we had adopted the same strategy as them, we were likely to finish behind them.
"So at that point you say, 'okay, we have nothing to lose'. The likelihood of being beaten by [Nico] Rosberg was pretty slim, so we felt we would go for a three-stop and try and pull out a gap, which worked very well with Felipe.
"Unfortunately Jenson was a bit too quick on the prime. We got to 12 seconds and needed 20 seconds, and it wasn't enough. But it was worth a roll of the dice."
Horner also revealed that a nut problem on the right rear wheel was the reason for Webber's slow opening pit stop.
"In the first one we had a nut come out of the socket on the right rear, which unfortunately cost him a few seconds," said Horner.
"I think we would have been able to have jumped Jenson, but that then dropped him behind Jenson and Felipe. At that point we needed to do something different; otherwise, we would have just finished behind the two of them."
