After finishing seventh in the Turkish Grand Prix this weekend – his fourth straight points finish of the 2008
Formula 1 campaign, and one that has lifted him up into the same spot in the drivers' standings –
Mark Webber has underlined his desire to remain with
Red Bull Racing next year.
The Aussie's current contract with the Milton Keynes-based outfit expires at the end of the current season, and given that he has registered all eight of the squad's points thus far this year, it would seem fairly safe to assume that the team would be equally keen to retain his services. Webber admitted to reporters in Istanbul that he has opened talks with RBR about re-signing for a third consecutive campaign.
“We are talking now,”
F1SA quotes the 31-year-old as having said. “I am free next year, but I am massively keen to stay here.
“What I love about this team is that I am employed to drive the car. If I have to do a contract day or a PR day, I ride a jet-ski instead of going to talk to people that don't want to see me and I don't want to see them. That's great.”
Webber has habitually been dogged by bad luck throughout his career in the top flight, having made his debut with Minardi back in 2002. Invariably on the receiving end of appalling ill-fortune – until this year, it would seem – the man from New South Wales insisted he was still ‘massively motivated' to perform, even if he admitted it is considerably less motivating when things are repeatedly going wrong.
“When you are getting smoked down at the back every week and it's tough, I'd rather be riding my mountain bike with my dog,” he confessed.
