One of Formula 1’s elder statesmen took what was looking like a very likely decision this morning and decided to leave the sport for the end of the season. Yes folks, Mark Webber has decided to leave three-time World Championship winning team, Red Bull Racing.
The decision may come as little surprise to avid F1 fans as Webber’s deteriorating relationship with certain members of the hierarchy at Red Bull meant that it looked to be only a matter of time before the Australian made this move.
Webber’s next career move is also one that has been mooted by many since the start of the season as he has agreed a deal to drive for Porsche’s Le Mans endurance racing team, a career move that he’ll have some prior experience in as he raced sports cars before joining F1 in 2002.
Webber is what you might call one of F1’s journeymen having being involved with a number of teams over his 11 years in the sport and has suited up over 200 times to take on some of the greatest drivers in F1 history and it’s the scale of his achievements, despite his reputation as an underdog, that have made him such a fan favourite especially over here in the UK.
Attention over the coming months now will obviously be on how Webber closes out his brilliant career but also on who’ll be replacing him in that coveted Red Bull Racing seat. 2007 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is the favourite to take over from Webber and that would surely make Red Bull one of the best teams in F1 history, even better than they are already having won 3 constructors title in a row, as Raikkonen is considered to be one of the greatest natural drivers ever to grace an F1 circuit. Concerns will be raised though with regards to whether Raikkonen be willing to potentially play second fiddle to Vettel and vice-versa but Raikkonen isnt the only name on the table as Red Bull’s sister team, Toro Rosso, usually supply drivers to Red Bull when there’s a place going and before anyone writes their two drivers off saying they can’t cut it, people were saying that of Vettel too and look at him now!
Its an interesting situation for sure but one that we’ve all been gearing up for for a very long time and now we’re stuck in the eye of the storm it’ll be interesting too how Webber and Red Bull get on for the rest of the season as well as when we see an announcement regarding who’ll replace him. Remember though that we’ll keep you up to dare with any driver announcements right here at Fortitude Magazine!