Christian Horner: Right balance is crucial within any team – Formula 1 news
Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner has said that they will favour to uphold their own team drivers than to allure McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton if they will have an opening at the end of the season ahead.
It is important to mention that the contract of Australian driver Mark Webber at Red Bull is going to be expired at the end of the 2012 season and so does the contract of Hamilton at McLaren.
Nevertheless, Horner said that Webber was determined to recover his performance this season after struggling previous year.
“I certainly don’t think Mark is going into this year thinking this is his last,” he said.
Moreover, Horner said that they felt comfortable with their current drivers after Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive of F1, suggested that the Briton might wish to move.
“I think that it’s difficult to envisage Lewis in our team,” he said. “I think he’s comfortable in the environment that he’s in and we’re certainly comfortable with the two drivers we have.”
Furthermore, Horner said that their intention was to invest in the talented and young drivers for the future.
“We also took a decision to invest in youth and we’ve got two really exciting youngsters that are entering GP racing in Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo – both very talented drivers and deserve that opportunity,” said Horner.
Vergne and Ricciardo are about to start their full first season with Toro Rosso which is the sister team of the defending champions, Red Bull. Moreover, they have the probable reward of being promoted as the teammate of Sebastian Vettel, double world champion
on the condition of Webber’s retirement.
Besides, it would be out of the ordinary to say that the defending champion, Vettel too graduated from Toro Rosso after his victory at Italian Grand Prix back in 2008.
In addition, Horner said that the right balance within any team was essential while he said that Jenson Button was a stronger contender for Vettel for the approaching season as compared to Hamilton.
“You’ve got to look at the balance within a team as well,” said Horner.
He also said that they would prefer to go with the drivers in which they had invested the time and money at the young age rather than taking someone from the outside.
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