Mark Webber wants to stay at Red Bull

It was in early May that Webber cast doubts on his future, admitting a decision on whether he continues would be down to how he felt about his situation. Although the 34-year-old Australian has endured a difficult start to the campaign, trailing team-mate Sebastian Vettel by 64 points, whatever was initially plaguing him has since disappeared. Speaking ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, Horner said: "Mark's made it clear he wants to drive next year."

Horner, however, is so far refusing to concede whether the team want to retain Webber, who is currently on a rolling contract. "With regard to points, Mark has had the best start to a campaign in his career in Formula One to date," said Horner, bettering his haul from the first six races of last season by a point.

"However, he has struggled with the new Pirelli tires, but he is working hard to get to grips with that. "He is still a fierce competitor and pushing very hard, as we saw in Barcelona a few weeks ago (at the Spanish Grand Prix) when he achieved his first pole position of the year.

"As far as the future is concerned, at this stage in his career we have agreed to take one step at a time, and at the appropriate time we will sit down and talk about that future.
"We've only competed in six grands prix out of probably 19, so some time later in the summer we will discuss next year."

At this time last year Webber had already signed a new contract for this season, and aside from the tire issues, little appears to have changed.
From Horner's perspective, there is every indication Webber will be handed a new deal at some stage over the coming months.

"At the end of the day it's down to the team and Mark to continue our relationship," said Horner."We have wanted to see whether he has the motivation and desire that he clearly has.

"As I say, he's had these issues with the tires he's working hard to get on top of, but we're very happy with him within the team.
"Should we sit down, then conversations with him tend to be straightforward."

Content + Image credits: The Telegraph UK