McLaren and Mercedes target Vettel

Red Bull Racing are bracing themselves as two of their big rivals have reportedly made approaches for four-time Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel is likely to lose his F1 title this season after one of the most dominant era’s of Formula One comes to a close.

Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing have dominated the past four seasons, breaking all sorts of records on the way to securing four consecutive drivers and constructors Formula One World Championships.

The 27-year-old German is reportedly sitting on a lucrative long-term contract with the Milton Keynes based outfit, however it is thought his Red Bull Racing contract holds a performance related get-out clause.

The details of any clause are not known, however it is believable that Red Bull’s current slide could well have been enough to trigger such a clause.

Despite Vettel’s fall from grace at Red Bull Racing and being rocked by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo out performing him, Vettel remains in high demand.

According to Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko, McLaren have made an ‘outrageously’ high offer for Vettel to join the team from 2016 onwards.

With Jenson Button currently out-of-contract at the end of the season with many believing he is coming to the end of his career, Vettel would be seen as a marque signing taking McLaren forward into a new era powered by Honda.

However in a twist, it is believed that Mercedes would also like to sign Vettel and considering current championship leader Nico Rosberg has only just signed a new multi-year deal with Mercedes that has to be with a view of replacing Lewis Hamilton at the end of his current contract.

‘Of course they target him,’ Marko added.

Interestingly, despite having both Rosberg and Hamilton duelling for the 2014 Formula One World Championship Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has decided not to deny the rumours.

Would Mercedes really oust Hamilton in favour of securing an all-German driver line-up such as they had with Rosberg and former seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher?

‘This world is too competitive to want to go into our plans in the public, We are talking about a handful of top drivers. All the best teams fight over them.

‘We try to build a picture of how the market moves until we come to our decisions,’ Wolff told German motorsport publication Sport Bild.