Top people to replace Mark Webber

[steveaki13]

Its strange. Most of the top drivers in F1 are already in teams and looking settled. I dont really see any second tier drivers so to speak ready to step up.

You normally have a couple of youngsters who everyone is sure will be a future champion. i.e in 2001-2003 everyone saw potential in Alonso & Raikkonen, 2004-2006 Button showed he was certainly going to be a decent driver, then Hamilton and Seb popped up.

No one really leaping out at me yet.

[Jag_Warrior]

I'm going to make a bold prediction and suggest that 2013 will prove that McLaren picked the wrong Sauber driver.

If you put Kamui Kobayashi head to head against Webber, I think that Kamui would kick Mark Webber's butt every which way to Thursday. Mark Webber is so dull that he's not even exciting enough to come from Canberra and that's saying something. Kamui would've given Vettel something to think about.

I also think that Kobayashi would be ideal. I don't think he's quite quick enough to challenge Vettel (or his ego) very often, but he is quick enough to score championship points.

[Coulthard Fan]

James Calado
Fabio Leimer
Nico Hulkenburg
Adrian Sutil
These guys are probably the best around at the minute not in top drives.
Daniel and John (Jean) are extremely average drivers if one of them gets promoted it's a joke.

[Coulthard Fan]

Oops forgot Luiz Razia and Felipe Nazr

[Whyzars]

At least the previous race did leave us enough ammunition to argue for almost two weeks.

Absolutely and its not like the publicity Red Bull is getting is bad publicity. They have two excellent and competitive drivers in their cars who finished 1 and 2 at the last Grand Prix.

I don't understand why people think that Red Bull would want Webber driving anywhere else.

The thing that keeps this "Multi-21gate" going is that Webber and Vettel are a good pairing. Vettel has the edge definitely with Webber being good enough to capitalise on a race that goes his way.

Every time the two of them are close on the track we have a good race. If anyone takes Webber's seat they have very big shoes to fill and I hope that Red Bull never, ever refers to anyone as their number 2 driver.


P.S. I wish I could use photoshop as a fun pic would be Mark fitting red bullbars to his car for the Chinese Grand Prix.

[Valve Bounce]

Its strange. Most of the top drivers in F1 are already in teams and looking settled. I dont really see any second tier drivers so to speak ready to step up.

You normally have a couple of youngsters who everyone is sure will be a future champion. i.e in 2001-2003 everyone saw potential in Alonso & Raikkonen, 2004-2006 Button showed he was certainly going to be a decent driver, then Hamilton and Seb popped up.

No one really leaping out at me yet.

I think you have provided the answer. All the ex future champions you mentioned are still there, so any future champion would have to show up against these guys who have improved over the years. A daunting task.

[Ranger]

James Calado
Fabio Leimer
Nico Hulkenburg
Adrian Sutil
These guys are probably the best around at the minute not in top drives.
Daniel and John (Jean) are extremely average drivers if one of them gets promoted it's a joke.

When did Adrian Sutil become a top driver?

Leading one race on an alternate fuel strategy and finishing 6 seconds ahead of your rather ordinary team-mate doesn't suddenly make him a top driver.

[seb_sh]

Webber will be hard to replace by any Red Bull junior drivers. Ideally I think they would have liked to keep him at least one more year but it's looking very unlikely to me.

Where could Webber go next year? To Lotus to replace Grosjean if he disappoints this season might be interesting for him. Ferrari could be a destination as well but Massa seems to be back on the ball. I don't think McLaren will change the lineup and neither will Mercedes. That's about it for the top teams and I doubt he'll want to go to a lower ranked team so maybe we'll see him in a Porsche at Le Mans

As for up and coming drivers I'm keeping an eye on Bianchi.

[zako85]

When did Adrian Sutil become a top driver?

Leading one race on an alternate fuel strategy and finishing 6 seconds ahead of your rather ordinary team-mate doesn't suddenly make him a top driver.

It's impressive after a year-long break.

[DexDexter]

Kimi Räikkönen. Him and Vettel would be a better combination than they have now. It makes perfect sense: Red Bull sponsored Kimi's rallying "career", he gets along with Seb and Horner very well and is a better driver than Mark Webber. At Red Bull he'd get a winning car.