Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes Mark Webber’s earned his contract extension – Formula 1
Red bull team boss Christian Horner has said that he does not believe that Mark Webber’s efforts over the off-season last winter had any impact over the team’s decision to renew his contract for 2013 as well.
Webber had a forgetful 2011 season where he was only able to notch up a single Grand Prix win while his younger teammate Sebastian Vettel went on to record 11 wins in the season. This season has been much better for the Aussie as he has been able to record
two Grands Prix wins in the season and is placed second on the Drivers’ Championship behind Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull retained Webber for another year with the team when there were some speculations that Red Bull might be looking into replacing Webber while similar rumours of the Aussie looking to move another team were also rife. In the end though it came out
to be Ferrari who were interested in dealing with Webber yet the Aussie stayed on with Red Bull and revealed that Ferrari were in talks with him.
“Mark has come back with renewed energy and enthusiasm for Formula 1 this year,” said Horner at Hockenheim on Thursday. “The win [in Brazil] at the end of last year did him a world of good and he wintered well. He has been very competitive and he is second
in the world championship. He is one of only two drivers to have won two grands prix so he's back at the top of his game.”
“It was evident to us that he came back after the winter with a refreshed approach and it was obvious that he put a lot of thought and hard work into his winter programme and came back with a renewed enthusiasm,” he added.
Horner also said that it has made sense to go with an earlier renewal to Webber’s contract considering his current form in the season.
He added that Webber has made it very clear that he wants to compete and win championships. The Aussie obviously has felt that his best chance to achieve that was stay on with Red Bull.
It will be interesting to see how the Aussie fares as the season progresses.
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