Mark Webber feels he may be calling time on his F1 career earlier than he needs to.
But the Red Bull driver says he is doing so to make the best of his impending switch to Porsche’s new World Endurance Championship team for 2014.
“I’m probably leaving F1 a year too soon but with the changes next season and the opportunity to join Porsche, it’s the best move for me,” he told F1 Racing magazine.
The nine-time race winner admitted he only recently began to understand what it felt like to lose motivation to compete.
“Questions keep coming to me more and more often that were never there in the past,” he said.
Webber said he had grown weary of the “travel and hotels” side of F1, which could have 20 races or more next year. “And probably the repetitive nature of the job,” he added. “A bit of media.”
“Lots and lots of small things that you’re happy to deal with when you’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”
Webber entered F1 with Minardi in 2002 and scored his first victory at the Nurburgring in 2009 after joining Red Bull. The following year he led the championship standings for six rounds but slumped to third at the finale while team mate Sebastian Vettel scooped the first of three consecutive world championships to date.
