Webber keeps seat on merit

With just a few days until the start of the new Formula One season, Mark Webber has received a confidence boost from Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

At 36-years-of-age Webber is constantly being written off by those in and around the sport and yet the Australian continues to sign rolling one-year contracts with the best team in the paddock Red Bull.

He may not have taken any Formula One World Championships in his career, whilst young German team-mate Sebastian Vettel has taken three consecutive titles, but Webber has played a big part in three Formula One constructors championships and that hasn’t gone unnoticed by his team principal.

‘The last three years have apparently been Mark’s last, yet he has been retained by the team because of what he has done in the car, and again the same rules apply this year,’ Horner told The Daily Mail as quoted by Sky Sports.

‘We want the strongest pairing and Mark has contributed significantly to our constructors’ world championships over the last three years, and even came close to winning his own title in 2010.

‘Mark has been employed by the team to do the best job he can and he knows what’s expected of him. There are an awful lot of drivers who would like to be sat in a Red Bull car but Mark is there on merit, and while he delivers for the team he will have that place.’

In the past former Formula One World Champions Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton have both been linked with moves to Red Bull, whilst the sister-team Toro Rosso runs with the simple strategy of discovering some home-grown talent to develop and eventually move on to the Red Bull team.

So far the likes of Jaime Alguersuari, Sébastien Buemi, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Scott Speed or Sébastien Bourdais haven’t managed to follow in the footsteps of Sebastian Vettel, but who knows whether either Jean-Éric Vergne or Daniel Ricciardo can and in doing so displace Webber at Red Bull.

Discussing his future in Formula One Webber told Autosport Magazine: ‘It comes with the territory when you are with a top team and at the back end of your career. The vultures have been on the branches for the last three or four years, that is the way it is.

‘There will be a day where I stop and someone will drive that car. And maybe the car is not competitive any more, so it won’t be important. Let’s see what happens.’