Mark Webber will leave Red Bull and Formula One at the end of the season.
The Australian driver wasn’t expected to stay on with Red Bull for another season, especially after the very public falling out he had with team-mate Sebastian Vettel and the team bosses at the Malaysian Grand Prix earlier this season, but it wasn’t clear just where his future would lie and whether or not he would move to another Formula One team.
But the 36-year-old has announced that he will be joining Porsche’s new sportscar programme and will race at the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours.
‘It’s an honour for me to join Porsche at its return to the top category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team. Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding technology and performance at the highest level,’ Webber said in his statement to Sky Sports.
‘I’m very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. Porsche will undoubtedly set itself very high goals. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world.’
Red Bull will now speed up their own process over who to partner with triple F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel.
They could opt to promote from within and take Jean-Eric Vergne or Daniel Ricciardo from sister team Toro Rosso, after all that’s one of the reasons why the team was set up in the first place, although no-one has actually followed in the footsteps of the German.
Or they could make a move for 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen who has been heavily linked with a move to Red Bull for some months.
The Lotus driver doesn’t have a contract beyond 2013 and there is also a former connection between driver and Red Bull as they sponsored him whilst contesting in the World Rally Championship.
