07/07/2012
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Mark Webber looks set to continue his Formula One career in 2013, though it's not yet clear which colour overalls he'll be wearing.
"We're reaching that time of the year that we'll sit down and talk about the future," admitted Red Bull boss Christian Horner.
"With Mark, he's driving very well this year, I think his enthusiasm for Formula 1 is clearly there," he added. "I think he's in great shape, and he's delivering in the car, so we'll sit down over the next few weeks and start to talk about the future."
Webber currently lies second in the drivers' championship, twenty points adrift of leader Fernando Alonso and six clear of his fourth placed teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Webber's future may be settled courtesy of Felipe Massa's return to form. The Brazilian, who has struggled since returning from injury in 2010, has recently begun to recapture the form that saw him come within a whisker of the 2008 world championship.
Massa's lack of form was a major catalyst in suggestions that Webber would replace the 31-year-old at Ferrari next season. "Things are getting better," Massa said on Friday. "I am getting stronger race-by-race, so we just need to put things together and things will be better.
"We just need to put things together and I think if we put things together the results will come. I am sure that with the right result, it will be much easier for the future."
"First I will talk with my team, because I would be happy to continue here," Webber told TF1. "I think given Felipe's results there could be a change there.
"It's such a great team with great history. It's also unclear what's happening with Michael (Schumacher); the same goes for me at Red Bull and Lewis (Hamilton) at McLaren.
"I'm motivated, I feel good, I've got a great job to drive the fastest cars on the world's best stretches of road. That's a dream."
Horner has also confirmed that the team's reserve driver, Sebastien Buemi, has been offered a new deal for 2013. "He will have a job with us in 2013 if he wants," Horner told Blick. "We absolutely want to keep him.
"Technically he is very good, and in the simulator he can adapt to the driving style of both the race drivers without any problems. That's pretty unique."