Porsche denies Mark Webber deal

Porsche have denied reports they had signed the Formula One driver on a five-year enduro sports car deal from 2014 after the Australian Red Bull driver's miserable weekend in Shanghai was ultimately ended by a loose rear tyre.

Moments after Webber's Shanghai challenge ended, Twitter lit up over his reported Porsche deal, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The official Le Mans 24 Hour account added to the speculation with a tweet which included Webber's 'AussieGrit' handle.

"Mark Webber at the 24 hours 2014 with Porsche ...May be ... #LM24 AussiGrit (sic) #mission2014", they tweeted.

However, Porsche's Wolfgang Hatz said they had not signed Webber as they prepared to hit the test track later this year ahead of their World Endurance Championship assault.

"There is a test plan and for sure Mark Webber is not part of them," he told AutoAction.

"We can have perhaps some Formula One drivers in the future but it is not necessary."

Webber was last involved in sports cars in 1999.

Rumours of a split with Red Bull were fuelled by a report earlier in the Herald Sun that Webber had reportedly signed a new five-year contract to lead Porsche in their return to famous 24 hour endurance race Le Mans.

Overnight Radio Le Mans announced that Mark Webber had put pen to paper making the deal official, meaning he would join Porsche in their assault on the World Endurance Championship.

Webber is expected to quit F1 at the end of the season, when his contract with Red Bull expires, the report added.

Rumours of a move to Porsche have been simmering for some time, and the car giant last week did not deny an interest in hiring Webber for their new Le Mans sportscar program.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner slammed Formula One conspiracy theorists on Sunday after Mark Webber's Chinese Grand Prix ended with a wheel coming off his car and a penalty for causing a collision.

"It's complete rubbish, forget conspiracy," Horner angrily told a reporter who alluded to some of the wilder speculation that there might be something more sinister behind the Australian's problems.

"We're all about trying to get two cars to the finish as high as we can," added Horner, whose team have won the last three championships.

"Anybody who thinks there is a conspiracy here against either driver does not know what they are looking at...There is no conspiracy."

Webber was certainly ready to accept the blame for some of his misfortune on an afternoon that went from bad to worse and lasted just 18 laps.

He collided with the Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso of Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne, for which he was given a three-place grid penalty for next weekend's race in Bahrain, and coasted into retirement as a rear wheel broke loose and bounced away.

By then, he had already pitted twice.

"I was coming from a reasonable distance behind, Jean-Eric was really wide, but when we came close to the apex he wanted to hit it, which he is entitled to do, but by then I was committed to the inside and the incident happened," he said.

"The guys thought the tyre was fixed when we left the stop, but it came off on the out lap," he added of the final blow to his hopes. "We have had a few problems this weekend; I think we could have done something from our start position today, but it wasn't meant to be."

The afternoon was in stark contrast to Malaysia, where he led until Vettel ignored instructions from the pit wall not to overtake and took the victory.

The feud between the team mates was the talk of the Shanghai paddock before the race but they never came close to each other on track.

"If Mark Webber didn't have bad luck, he'd have no luck at all," commented his former team mate David Coulthard on BBC television.

 

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