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Mark Webber heading back to Le Mans? That is flippin' awesome!

Webber denies Porsche announcement was a dig at Red Bull

Mark Webber has denied that the announcement of his Porsche sportscar racing future was designed as a dig at his current Formula 1 squad Red Bull.

Webber confirmed on the eve of this weekend's British Grand Prix that he would leave F1 and Red Bull for Porsche's new Le Mans and World Endurance Championship programme next year.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was informed shortly before the news became public, having told reporters earlier this week that the door was open to the Australian staying on for 2014.

Webber revealed at Silverstone that his decision had been made "for quite a long time", but said he had no qualms about how the news was handled and had kept Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz informed.

"It was a Porsche announcement, I informed Christian before the announcement which contractually I should do, and that is what we did," said Webber.

"It was about Porsche and Mark Webber today.

"I think I helped the team today; they have to make some decisions for the future.

"Dietrich has been completely up to speed with my thinking in the last few months, he has been on board, and encouraged me not to rush my decision when I approached him earlier this season.

"I think basically we went through all the right channels and avenues to get the message across and it was done in the right way."

Webber added that his commitment to his Red Bull F1 duties would not diminish now that he had chosen a future elsewhere.

"For the rest of the season it doesn't change a huge amount," he said.

"I have known the decision and nothing changes in my approach. In my last few races I'll be challenging for the top step.

"It's in my interests to keep the motivation up until Brazil, and to work hard with the guys.

"Given the effort that goes in to get the car there at this level, I need to keep pushing for myself and the team and all their efforts at the factory."

Kimi did have a good latter part of 2009, but he only seemed to pick up his game after Massa got injured. Whether the turnaround was down to Kimi or rather Ferrari needing to put more resources into Kimi (to save their season) is really the discussion.

Hope he doesn't get kicked out early for making an announcement like that without them knowing. When Montoya announced his move to NASCAR Dennis was pretty pissed about it and kicked him at the first opportunity he fucked up. Not afraid about Horner's or Mateschitz reaction, but more about Helmut.

That would be a dumb move by Red Bull that would end up working out well for basically nobody who's in the frame for the seat (except maybe Raikkonen, long-term). I'd imagine Riccardo and Vergne (the two most likely replacements in my view, should that happen) would have to think twice about switching to a different car mid-season without any previous mileage in it, especially when they're both in the limelight for a potential switch come the end of the season anyway. Having a bad set of results would probably be career suicide for them. Plus Red Bull would most likely put all their resources behind Vettel to win the crown should that happen because it would be much easier for them to both do and justify afterwards, which wouldn't help the guy in the other car either.

There's been a good article about Kimi's last year at the Ferrari (maybe it was by phil1993 or linked here by him some time ago?). It's funny how Kimi's motivation and performance dropped around the same time when Santander made a deal with Ferrari around Monaco 2008 and kept getting worse until Massa got injured. Ferrari wasn't the fastest car on either of the two seasons, first it was McLaren, then Brawn and Red Bull. Ferrari was all in for Massa, because they knew that he would still be around for 2010 and had a good marketing value in South America for both Ferrari and Santander. When Massa was injured and Ferrari needed more constructor points from their only car left for the field, in all of a sudden Kimi was way faster in Hungary already and had good results.

As his comeback has proved, Kimi has never had problems with his motivation or performance.

Kimi's really an awesome person on all levels, he will give good value for Red Bull next year.