Following his “feud” with teammate and recently crowned F1 champion Sebastian Vettel last year, it was believed that Webber will not live to see another contract extension with Red Bull Racing. However, as this rivalry turned out to boost the 23-year old German to the world title, the guys over at Milton Keynes are not convinced that finding Vettel another teammate from 2012 onwards is the way to go.
“Mark isn't approaching this year that [as if] this is his final year,” said Horner according to Autosport, citing the Reuters news agency, referring to the fact that Webber is in his last year of contract with the Austrian squad.
“I think we both agreed to keep the contract on a yearly basis at this stage in his career because it's important for us to see that he's got the speed, the motivation, the hunger and commitment. All of which look undiminished at the moment. If anything, [they are] burning brighter than ever,” further added the youngest team manager in the F1 paddock.
We don't know if this is a way of giving Webber an extra motivation for the 2011 season – the first would be that this might be his last chance of fighting for the world title – but what we do know is that Red Bull will make that decision sometime this summer and not wait for the season to come to an end.
“So we'll see how this season develops and obviously as we head towards the latter part of the summer then we'll start to talk about the following season. If he's delivering at the same level as he did in 2010 then why not?” concluded Horner.
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