Mark Webber Set to Stay at Red Bull

After months of speculation it now seems as if Mark Webber will remain with the Red Bull F1 team beyond this season.

There have been wide spread rumours that Webber would be moved on at the end of the season, however that now seems off the cards with team officials hinting that the Red Bull seat would be Webber’s next year if he so desires.

It is believed that Red Bull value Webber’s experience and ability to test new innovations and pass on vital information to his crew.

It now seems unlikely that Aussie young gun Daniel Ricciardo will be elevated to the Red Bull F1 team next year, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner saying the up and coming driver will be better served by spending more time with Red Bull’s development team.

“Daniel has no experience of grand prix racing, he has an awful lot to learn, and HRT and Toro Rosso are the best environment for him to do that, as Sebastian Vettel did with Toro Rosso in 2007 and 2008,” Horner said.

“He needs to develop, it would be wrong to rush him through. He has to prove himself in Formula One after proving himself in those lower categories. We’ll be keeping a very close eye on him.”

Ricciardo will make his F1 debut this weekend at Silverstone after being picked up by the HRT team on a short term loan deal.

Meanwhile, ahead of the British Grand Prix, Mark Webber called into question the FIA’s decision to ban the use of off-throttle blown diffusers.

“It will be interesting to see if this has any impact on the pecking order but I have to say the timing of it is bizarre to say the least,” Webber said.

“From the outside, the fans will not notice any difference, although the cars could sound quite different when braking and entering for the corners. This is where the drivers will feel a change in the cockpit as the car might not feel as stable and we might need to make some small corrections for this. It could also reduce rear downforce a significant amount as well as affecting tyre wear.”

Red Bull racing director Adrian Newey said his team was likely to suffer because of the new rule change.

“I think we will be quite heavily affected because our car was designed around the exhaust,” Newey said.

“I’m slightly baffled because it’s been declared legal forever until this race.”

Many are suggesting that the rule change has been bought in mid-season in an effort to curb the dominance of Red Bull.

“It’s easy to fall into the Machiavellian conspiracy theories. Whether it’s true of not, I don’t know and I can’t comment,” Newey said.

“My read of it would be that, of our main competitors, Ferrari probably haven’t got their exhaust to work that well so they are quite happy to see the back of it.”