Webber, Vettel at centre of Ferrari rumours

Australia’s last world champion Alan Jones has urged Mark Webber to join Ferrari.

After the Red Bull driver won his second Monaco grand prix last weekend, his team boss Christian Horner moved to play down the 35-year-old’s rumoured 2013 switch to Maranello based Ferrari.

“Why would he want to leave?” Horner is quoted by the Sun.

“You could see on Sunday that he is at the top of his game and his future will take care of itself.”

But Jones, who won Williams’ first world championship in 1980, said countryman Webber should think about it if Ferrari have made him an offer.

“Mark has already done one of the two things that most formula one drivers would like to do, and that’s win Monaco — the other one is to drive for Ferrari,” he is quoted by AAP news agency.

“I’m sure he’d have a look at it.  He gets on extremely well with Alonso, so maybe that could be a good way for him to go.”

Also linked with Ferrari has been Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel, who this week denied British newspaper reports about a 2014 ‘pre-contract’.

“How will this work if I don’t know anything about it?” the German smiled to Austria’s Kleine Zeitung.

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko, however, confirmed that the story is at least theoretically possible due to the existence of a contract out-clause for 2014.

“2013 is fixed,” the Austrian told Bild newspaper.

“For 2014 there is a performance-related clause in his contract — for him and for the team,” Marko revealed.

Former driver and German TV pundit Christian Danner, however, urged Vettel to resist Ferrari’s prestigious lure.

“To go to Ferrari while Alonso is there would be suicide,” he insisted.

Triple world champion Niki Lauda also commented: “There is no hurry for Vettel.

“No one can anticipate where Ferrari will be in 2014.”

 

 © RIF|GMM