Webber as hungry as ever - Horner

Mark Webber could stay on at Formula One champion Red Bull after the 2011 season if he’s still as quick as he was in 2010, according to team boss Christian Horner.

The 34-year-old Australian, whose hopes of the title were dashed in the final race of 2010 by 23-year-old German team mate Sebastian Vettel, will be out of contract with Red Bull at the end of 2011.

He will be starting his fifth consecutive season with it when the championship starts in Bahrain on March 13.

Horner said: “Mark isn't approaching this year as if it’s his final year. We agreed to keep the contract on a yearly basis at this stage in his career because it's important for us to see that he's got the speed, the motivation, the hunger and commitment.

“All of which look undiminished at the moment. If anything, they’re burning brighter than ever.

“So we'll see how this season develops and obviously as we head towards the latter part of the summer then we'll start to talk about the following season,” added the Briton, whose team won both titles in 2010.

“If he's delivering at the same level as he did in 2010 then why not?,” he said.

Webber ended 2010 third overall after leading the championship and winning four races, including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

Horner said it had been hard for the Australian, who broke his leg in 2008 and then fractured his shoulder in another mountain bike fall in 2010 while leading the standings, to see Vettel triumph in Abu Dhabi as youngest champion yet.

“It was tough for Mark to take,” he recognised. “But Mark's mentally a tough competitor and I think he will use that inwardly as motivation to come back even more determined, more focused and I think he's come back leaner, lighter and extremely motivated.” Webber complained in 2010 that his Austrian-owned team was favouring Vettel but Horner dismissed that again and said he would have equal treatment again.

“I think if he didn't believe that, he'd stop,” he said. “He's a strong enough character that if he didn't believe it, he would have stopped at the end of the year.”

Red Bull reacts to Vettel backstab

Red Bull racing has given its blessing to world champion Sebastian Vettel joining Ferrari - but only when he's a lot more grown up and nearing the end of his Formula One career.

Vettel, the youngest ever champion at 23 years old, told Italian reporters on Tuesday that he dreamed of racing for Ferrari one day.

“I think any driver at some stage in his career would like to drive for the red team and we don't hold that against him,” responded team boss Christian Horner in an interview with Reuters at a Motor Sport magazine Hall of Fame event.

“But...for the foreseeable future we see him as a part of Red Bull, he's grown up within the Red Bull family and hopefully for many years to come. Just before he retires he can go to Ferrari,” he smiled.

“If he wants to go to Ferrari just before he retires, then that could be another 10 years away. Or in Michael (Schumacher)'s case 20 years away.”

Vettel's fellow-German Schumacher, a seven times world champion and former Ferrari favourite, made his comeback last year and is gearing up for another season with Mercedes at the age of 42.

The younger champion had told the Gazzetta dello Sport that he hoped one day to stand on the podium at Monza as a Ferrari driver but Horner, whose team won both titles last year, laughed off the comments.

“The Italians get very excited when world champions talk about Ferrari, so maybe he's been dreaming about Ferrari but I think that's about all,” he said.

“One of the things that we encourage is a freedom of expression and so on. Sebastian is his own person and he's got his own opinions,” said Horner.

Vettel has won 10 races in cars designed by Red Bull's Adrian Newey - one for Toro Rosso and the other nine for Red Bull racing.

He and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, a double world champion, both won five races last season but the Italian team were well beaten into third place overall in the constructors' standings.

The young German has repeatedly acknowledged his debt to Austrian-owned Red Bull, who have groomed him for greatness from an early age, and Horner expected the partnership to last.

“For the foreseeable future, and most importantly for the immediate future, he is very much committed to Red Bull and likewise Red Bull committed to him,” he emphasised.

“It's down to us to ensure that we are giving him a quick car and it's down to him to ensure that he's performing, and what driver in the pitlane wouldn't want to drive a Red Bull at the moment?,” said Horner.

“He's an important part of what we do and an important part of how the team moves forward but that is more than a piece of paper or a contract.

“That comes down to relationships, down to trust, down to feeling comfortable in an environment. He's grown up within the Red Bull family and all the success he has achieved within his motorsport career has come within that environment.”

Horner also said Australian Mark Webber, whose contract with the team expires at the end of the season, could stay on after 2011 if he was as quick as last year.

“If he's delivering at the same level as he did in 2010 then why not?,” he said.

Vettel lapped quickest on the first day of testing in Spain this year but other teams - Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault and Williams - have seized the limelight since that day. Horner said the times meant nothing, however.

“I think it's dangerous to follow the (television) monitor too much,” he said. “In fact sometimes I'd prefer it if the engineers would turn the timing screen off because the times are irrelevant. We are there to learn and go about our preparation and who knows.

“We'll focus on ourselves, which is the approach we have applied for the last two years, and then within a month we'll know where we're at.”

Red Bull won nine races last year, with 15 pole positions and four one-two finishes. The season is due to start in Bahrain on March 13.

“RB7 (the new car) has a lot to live up to but all the initial signs are encouraging,” said Horner. “The drivers like the feel of the car but it's impossible to say until we get to Bahrain.

“And even Bahrain probably won't paint the full picture. Form will ebb and flow over the course of the season and its going to be down to who does the most consistent job.”

The most frugal Range Rover ever

Land Rover has created a diesel-electric plug-in hybrid prototype and will be showing it off at the Geneva show in March.

The technology-packed 'Range_e' is one of many working prototypes currently being developed at Land Rover's design and engineering centre in the UK.

The super-efficient SUV is based on a Range Rover Sport and features a 3-litre TDV6 diesel engine with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.

However, being mated to a plug-in parallel diesel hybrid system, it can also run as a pure electric vehicle for up to 32km.

What's more, the 'Range_e' is the first capable 4WD model from Land Rover to achieve a CO2 emissions rating as low as 89g/km.

It's not a compromised slouch by any means, with a maximum speed of 192km/h and an overall range of 1104km - that's if you charge the battery and fill the tank with diesel.

Battery Boxster a short-range missile

Porsche has (almost silently) rolled out three Boxster E prototypes, each powered by two 90kW electric motors and a 29kW/h battery.

These are not concepts, says Porsche CEO Matthias Müller, but rolling laboratories that will be put into daily use to help solve the practical problems of electric vehicles in a real-world situation - and to adapt that world for electric vehicles.

No technical details have been released but Müller said the battery Boxsters would have about the same performance as the conventional models - 0-100 in five seconds and a 270km/h top speed.

Simple arithmetic, however, tells us that level of performance will run a 29kW/h battery as flat as yesterday’s souffle in about nine minutes.

Müller admitted: "Electric mobility is a central challenge of the coming years and we at Porsche have a part to play, to gain insight into requirements for future products and the inclusion of electric vehicles in the infrastructure.

The Boxster, he added, was the ideal platform for practical testing of electric drives.

“It's very light and its mid-engine layout allows the new components - electric motors, batteries and high-voltage technology - to be safely and accessibly accommodated while still providing the performance and dynamics expected of a Boxster."

Ford reveals faster Fiesta

Ford performance fans around the globe must be crying blue murder at the fact that Ford is taking so long to create an ST version of the latest Fiesta, but now the company is making the wait a little easier for European customers.

The new Sport+ limited edition might not have the street cred that an ST customer wants, but it is a step in the right direction, its enhanced 1.6-litre petrol motor now producing 100kW and 160Nm (up from the standard Fiesta's 88kW and 152Nm).

Factor in that the new Fiesta is lighter than the old one and that the latter ST model only produced 110kW and this new edition might not be such a bad compromise after all.

The tuned Duratec TI-VCT four-cylinder engine will, according to Ford, get the car from 0-100km/h 1.2-seconds quicker than the standard 1.6, in 8.7 seconds to be precise.

It'll have a different name depending on which market it's sold in, some European markets calling it the Sport+, while in Germany it'll be the Sport S and in the UK the S1600.

This sporty Fiesta also has the show to match the go compliments of 17-inch alloys and a bespoke body kit comprising of a restyled front bumper, a rear diffuser incorporating twin tailpipes and bolder side skirts and rear spoiler.

Rounding off the package in ST-like style is a set of contrasting racing stripes flowing over one of two available paint jobs, namely Performance Blue or Frozen White.

The cabin is kitted out with motorsport-branded scuff plates and floor mats as well as sportier seats complete with blue stitching.

Red Bull's Formula One World champion Sebastian Vettel continues to pay lavish compliments to Ferrari, joking he would finance a holiday for Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa so he could drive the red car.

Asked what he would do if he could not drive the Red Bull in 2012, Vettel said: “Probably I would offer a holiday to Alonso and Massa. Even if I'm not sure they would shake my hand.”

The 23-year-old German has often maintained it was every driver's wish to one day race for Ferrari but his continued comments make uncomfortable reading for title holder Red Bull, even if he thanked them for their work.

“My dream is to race one day for Maranello. Anyway, I'm still young, there's time. And for the moment I'm happy to be at Red Bull, without them I would never have arrived in F1.”

He added: “I would like a podium at Monza with Ferrari. And one day I hope to have a Ferrari in my garage. Despite being at Red Bull there are lots of Italians supporting me.”

Alonso finished second to Vettel in the 2010 championship but fellow Ferrari driver Massa had a difficult campaign and his future will be under scrutiny once the new season starts in Bahrain on March 13.

Like many drivers this season, Vettel is unhappy with the number of buttons he has to press with the re-introduction of the Kers energy recovery system and a moveable rear wing possibly creating more chances for overtaking.

“Drivers are born to drive, not to play with buttons. I'm not convinced it's a good thing,” he said after testing at Jerez which he said “went well”.

“I would prefer that overtaking remains difficult.”

The World champion also had words of support for Robert Kubica, badly injured in a rally crash, and his likely Renault substitute Nick Heidfeld.

“I was surprised because Robert can consider himself a rallying expert. We can't lock ourselves in cages,” Vettel added about Renault's willingness to let Kubica go rallying.

“In Jerez, Heidfeld worked well ... He deserves this chance.”

Jaguar planning a 3-Series rival

Hungry to boost is volumes under Tata ownership, Jaguar is working on a new 'entry-level' sedan that will do battle with the BMW 3-Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

It's not coming cheap though. According to Autocar, the new Jaguar will compete at the expensive end of that segment and will be a high-quality and high-tech product in every respect.

To keep weight to a minimum it will use a version of the aluminium monocoque architecture that will also be shared with the next-generation Range Rover family of SUVs.

Meanwhile, the saloon is expected use the high-tech 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine found in the new Range Rover Evoque while petrol power is likely to come compliments of Ford's four-cylinder EcoBoost turbo petrol engines and Ford's Powershift transmission is also on the cards for certain models.

The new 'compact' sedan is expected to hit the streets in 2014, with a crossover version of this car also due around the same time, and the platform will also spawn the next generations of the larger XF and XJ saloons.