Webber to qui F.1 at the end of the season
A few hours before the Silverstone GP begins, people are working hard to get the cars well prepared to make Friday’s free practice session to officially mark the beginning of the F.1 Championship’s 8th round. Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are favourite to win, but also Lotus and Force India shouldn’t be underestimated, as they are such good outsiders, ready to seize every single chance.
Over the past few hours Mark Webber has announced that he will quit F.1 and Red Bull at the end of the season to join Porsche’s new Le Mans sportscar project LMP1 “It’s an honour for me to join Porsche at its return to the top-tier category in Le Mans and in the sports car World Endurance Championship and be part of the team. Porsche has written the history of motorsport as a car manufacturer and stands for outstanding technology and performance at the highest level.”
The Australian made his debut in F.1 in 2002 alongside the Minardi Team, driving the Minardi PS02. In his homeland he finished 5th, getting all the Minardi Team’ fans very excited.
“I knew about Mark’s decision to quit F.1, we had already announced that in our website. I think he quits F.1 in the right moment. Taking part in the LMP1 races alongside Porsche doesn’t mean he will be downgraded, on the contrary, it’s a good prize to his career. He has always demonstrated to be an excellent driver and I think he will continue to demonstrate it even in this new adventure. They will have to pay attention to Audi and Toyota. The 2014 season will be full of sport challenges”, says Gian Carlo Minardi.
After scoring 2 points alongside the Faenza-based team, Webber moved first to Jaguar then to Williams and Red Bull, where he arrived in 2008. The English team will celebrate its 600 GP starts at Silverstone and Pastor Maldonado feels confident of scoring his first points: “I’m proud to be part of this historic moment for my team. Silverstone is one of my favourite circuits. It has a lot of character. Low temperatures will play a key role on front tyre degradation, so it will be very important to set a good strategy. We have also to consider that the new part of the track is with fewer grips. Our goal is to finish in the points zone and make this event even more memorable for the team”, says Pastor Maldonado.
Ferrari’s Team Principal is confident and ready to recover. In the past season Alonso sealed a win in Silverstone “Our goal is to bridge the gap with the top position in the next races. I think we’ll be very competitive in Silverstone: we’ve been competitive here also in the recent past, but we know that many causes could play an important role. Tyres? Tyre management will depend on weather conditions and temperatures. The team is well concentrated: we know we have to get a good result, but we’ve already accustomed to this kind of pressure.”
In the run for the pole position, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg can bother Sebastian Vettel “It’s always special to race at Silverstone. It’s my home race. We’ve had a long break between the Canadian GP and the British one, so I’m looking forward to get back behind the wheel. I like the British track very much and I think that, since there are high speed corners, it will be very important to find the right pace”, says Hamilton “We’ve made some steps forward and are working to the right direction. We look forward to a great weekend.”
“Silverstone is our home race, so we love this weekend. The track is completely different from the one at Monaco and Montreal, here there are many quick corners. I don’t know how our car can react, what is sure is that tyre will undergo weather influence. The atmosphere you live is always special at Silverstone and it will be so good to share the motorhome with the other drivers. We’ll arrange a big barbecue”, says Nico Rosberg.
