LONDON, Aug 7 - Australian Mark Webber will partner Briton David
Coulthard at Red Bull next season, the Formula One team announced on Monday.
After being replaced by one Austrian, test driver Alexander Wurz who will
race for Williams in 2007, it was the 29-year-old Australian's turn to oust
another.
Webber will take the place of young Austrian Christian Klien at the team
owned by energy drink billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz.
"We chose him for a number of straightforward reasons," said team boss
Christian Horner.
"One, he obviously has undoubted speed and ability and, two, he appears to
have the determination and motivation needed to succeed.
"We're entering an exciting new phase in the short history of Red Bull Racing
and Mark was an obvious candidate to us."
Next year's Red Bull car will be the first overseen by Adrian Newey, the top
designer behind a string of titles for Williams and McLaren.
The move also reunites Webber with many former colleagues from his days at
Jaguar, the team Mateschitz bought from Ford and renamed after his product.
RIGHT TIME
"I believe I am joining the team at exactly the right time for success in the
future," said the driver.
"After I left Jaguar Racing at the end of the 2004 season and discovered that
Mr Mateschitz was taking over the team, I said that I felt the team had been
placed in very good hands and had an assured future.
"I hope that with Red Bull Racing I can have my best F1 season to date and
believe that we can be very, very strong together," added Webber.
Red Bull are using Ferrari engines but speculation has suggested they could
switch to Renault V8 units next year with sister team Toro Rosso taking over the
Ferrari contract.
Webber is managed by Renault team boss Flavio Briatore and had been linked to
the champions as a possible successor to Spaniard Fernando Alonso when the
champion joins McLaren at the end of the year.
The Australian's move now makes it almost certain that Finnish test driver
Heikki Kovalainen will get Renault's second seat alongside Italian Giancarlo
Fisichella if they cannot secure the services of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.
