Red Bull must keep delivering or lose Vettel – owner

Red Bull will have to keep delivering a top car to Sebastian Vettel, team owner Dietrich Mateschitz has admitted.

The 23-year-old, groomed through the ranks by the energy drinks company, became F1’s youngest ever world champion against the odds in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

“He will be a world champion a few times more,” said Austrian billionaire Mateschitz on Austrian television ORG, “provided he is sitting in the right car.

“We will do our best to give that car to him,” he added.

“If we are not able to, we will have to let him go somewhere where he can be champion again,” said Mateschitz.

Vettel’s current contract runs only to the end of next year, with an option for 2012, but Red Bull has expressed interest in extending the deal through 2015.

His next agreement will be worth much more money, Willi Weber has warned.

But he thinks Vettel has missed out on F1’s headiest days of driver earning power.

“I have a feeling that Michael (Schumacher) and I had the best time in F1, with which you can no longer compare,” the famous driver manager told SID news agency.

“Today there is less money available,” added Weber.

© RIF | GMM