Webber: Vettel is better off at Ferrari

Webber believes Vettel's switch to Ferrari will suit him. Source: QUIQUE GARCIA / AFP

FORMER Formula 1 ace Mark Webber says his former Red Bull Racing rival and racing partner Sebastian Vettel will be better off for having left the team at the end of last season.

Four-time world-champion Vettel will have his first race for Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix next month, after six years with Red Bull.

In his final season he was comprehensively outshone by Webber's replacement, fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who won three races and finished third in the drivers' championship.

Webber believes Vettel, with whom he had regular run-ins both on and off the track, had made his decision to switch teams a long time ago and as a result had lost his hunger for racing for Red Bull.

Time will tell whether the Red Bull will miss the experience of the German driver who won 38 F1 races with the team.

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"Seb's not a silly guy and he realised that he needed fresh motivation and a new change and I think the decision was made very early, probably before the season even started to be honest," Webber said.

"The line is not 'they won't miss Vettel', the line is that when he wants to do something else and be in a different environment, then he is better off going somewhere he might feel he will get more out of himself.

"That's definitely a question for the team halfway through the season, whether they are missing some of that experience."

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel during their time together at Red Bull. Source: AP

Webber names Mercedes, whose racers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished first and second in the drivers' championship last year, as the team to beat again in 2015.

He said McLaren and Williams were in the ascendancy and predicted a "solid" season for Red Bull and Ricciardo, assuming they can get the car right.

"Obviously a wealth of knowledge and Daniel's experience is only going to help him," Webber said.

"They are lacking a little bit of continuity at Red Bull now — there are a few people who have left the team. So that will be interesting to see how technically good the car is over the course of a full season, not just at the start.

"They will be a solid outfit and to match last year will be another good achievement for Daniel. He will want more — he will want to fight for the championship and Lewis and Nico will be the hardest nuts to crack."

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Vettel has been replaced at Red Bull by 20-year-old Russian driver Daniil Kvyat, which makes Ricciardo the senior driver at Red Bull this season. Both drivers, as did Vettel before them, made their way up the grid through the Toro Rosso team.

Webber, who will call this year's Australian GP for Channel 10, applauded those drivers for paying their dues, as opposed to the rise of so-called "pay drivers" who have secured places on F1 teams through sponsorship dollars or family fortunes.

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"It's always exciting when you have a youngster who comes in on merit and does very well," Webber said of Kvyat.

"We have a few guys on the grid who have paid their way into Formula 1 and that's rubbish — that's not what we want in the sport.

"The depth of the field has dropped off a bit in the last two or three years and all of us drivers at the front are disappointed with that.

"We want the depth all the way through and the best young talent coming through the back of the grid."

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