05/05/2011
NEWS STORY
Speaking to reporters in Istanbul ahead of this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix, Mark Webber has admitted that he hopes to remain with red Bull for 2012, effectively seeing out his career with the Austrian outfit.
With his contract due to run out at the end of this season, the Australian's seat alongside Sebastian Vettel is regarded as one of the hottest in the pitlane. Asked what he thinks his options are, the Australian replied that he has three... "Stay here, stop or drive somewhere else... which is probably unlikely," he said.
"It's obviously down a lot to how I feel about things and we'll see how we feel later in the year," he continued. "I could have stopped two, three years ago but I didn't, I kept going. The results have been good in the last few years and are still being good now."
The bad period doesn't refer to the much publicised difficulties with his current team, adjusting to life alongside Vettel, but to his pretty much fruitless time with Williams.
"It's old ground isn't it?" he said. "We know the window in my career where I was thinking about it. It didn't happen, I came to Red Bull and we've done some great things together. There's still a lot of big boxes to tick hopefully and do some great things."
Asked about his chances of retaining his seat, the Australian admitted: "We haven't had too many discussions yet, but obviously in the next few months things will start... it's not really a big subject. We realise how many good things we've done together and there's a good chance of doing some very good things again together in future. Whether it ends this year or I go again next year, it doesn't depend on results. The results will be fine. It depends on how I feel.
"I just didn't enjoy my time before I came here," he admitted. "At Williams it was a tough fight for me. At that point I had to restart my career in a way and it worked out very well. So obviously I made the right decision there and since then I've taken it step by step which has been the right way for my mentality towards the job and probably also suits Red Bull quite well."