27/06/2022
NEWS STORY
Driver turned TV pundit, Mark Webber is predicting that Max Verstappen and Red Bull will wrap up the 2022 titles with three races remaining.
The Australian, who made his F1 debut with Minardi in 2002 and subsequently raced for Jaguar and Williams before making a surprise move to Red Bull in 2007, is convinced that his old team is heading for another title, with Max Verstappen set to win back-to-back crowns "comfortably".
"Red Bull will continue to dominate this championship," he tells the Observer. "They have a car that is very good on downforce levels, on all compounds of tyre.
"It's like a tennis player on all surfaces or a golfer on all holes, short, long, chipping, putting, driving, the Red Bull can do everything," he adds. "Red Bull have pretty much an answer for anything at the moment, Max could wrap it up with three races to go."
During his seven seasons with Red Bull, Webber finished third in the drivers' championship on three occasions, all three times as teammate to Sebastian Vettel, who, unlike the Australian, was a product of the Red Bull Driver Programme.
His move to Red Bull in 2007 was widely greeted with surprise since the team was regarded as a means of promoting drivers it had developed in-house. Indeed, on first joining the team, Webber raised the matter with Christian Horner, asking how Helmut Marko - the driving force behind the young driver programme - felt about his recruitment, only to be told to obey the Austrian and avoid conflict with him.
With this in mind, and his years as teammate to Vettel, Webber fully empathises with Sergio Perez' predicament, the Mexican, like himself, an outsider, partnering a member of the Red Bull family. However, that aside, the Australian believes the Mexican is no match for the Dutchman.
"I like Sergio a lot but over the course of the season, over time, Max will just find a way to start accumulating bigger points," he says. "In Azerbaijan Max drove away down the road, it was a very emphatic victory. Then in Canada it's raining, it's dry, it's cold, it's tricky and Max all weekend was phenomenal."
As far as the Australian is concerned, one of the team's true strengths is its continuity.
"I know deep down they like the heat, delivering under pressure," he says. "Strategically they are brave, they are quite free, even with the trophy cabinet they have, they don't have paralysis by analysis. Give them a job and they just get on with it.
"Hanna Schmitz, the race strategist, she was there when I was there. The same people have been through the tough times and the great times, that's something I really admire."