Formula 1: Mark Webber's Time at Red Bull Racing Coming to an End?

The writing is on the wall for Mark Webber.

The Aussie journeyman’s time at Red Bull is coming to an end, despite him making it clear that he wants to drive next year and his preference is to stay at RBR until the end of his career. He may still get to finish his career at RBR, but it’s starting to look like he may not get the luxury of choosing his retirement date if he really wants stay.

This week, Red Bull “consultant” Helmut Marko openly slated the likelihood that one of the Toro Rosso drivers is the likely to succeed Webber when he decides to retire. This was followed up by team principal, Christian Horner, flagging that RBR will discuss Webber’s future with him in the European summer.

If we throw in the fact that Webber is the only one of significance who hasn’t had their contract renewed beyond the end of the 2011 season, we start to see a picture emerging.

The fact that 2011 has not been a good year for Webber will not help his cause when it comes to negotiating a deal. While he is currently in third place in the driver’s championship, he is languishing a massive 64 points behind Vettel after only six races.

Not that it’s all Webber’s fault.

Technical difficulties with KERS has severely hampered Webber’s ability to race on equal terms with the rest of the field, although he has been able to secure the fastest lap in four of those six races, suggesting that his car is nowhere near as bad as it sometimes appears.

Looking at the arrangement impartially, Webber is certainly in the twilight phase of his career. At 34, he probably has one year left at his best and, assuming this year’s gap to Vettel is too great, he realistically missed his only shot at the title when his season fell apart at the end of last year.

Marko has already consigned Webber to the No. 2 role this year, already deciding that he is too slow to win races of his own accord.

Horner, on the other hand, has always looked more kindly upon Webber than has Marko, but it’s difficult to know who wields more power in Red Bull world—Horner the team boss, or Marko who has the ear of the owner.

Certainly, it was Marko who was responsible for inflaming an already tense situation after the collision between Vettel and Webber in Turkey last year, dumping the blame squarely in the lap of Webber when the opposite was obvious to everyone else.

Then again, it was Horner who took the new wing off Webber’s car and gave it to Vettel at Silverstone later that year.

RBR make no secret that they look after their own. They are justifiably proud of the development program that has finally borne fruit as Vettel took out the first F1 world championship.  Sebstien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari are both products of that system.
   
Webber, on the other hand, was inherited from RBR’s predecessor, Jaguar, and was kept, at least in part, because of his relationship with Renault. They have since developed their own relationship, so the reasons to keep Webber around diminish by the day.

We’ll find out soon enough what Webber’s future holds, but it is looking less and less likely that it will be at Red Bull. Time will tell.