Mark Webber admits he has been struggling with motivation in F1

Mark Webber

Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who has decided to call it quits on his F1 career at the end of this season, says he has been struggling to motivate himself to stay in F1.

He said: “I’ve been on the edge with F1, motivation-wise, for the past couple of years. You have to be driven. You turn yourself around each winter and the fire in the belly is not quite what it was when you were 24.”

Although he has been competing in Formula 1 for 12 seasons, he says he loves driving a F1 car. “I still enjoy being belted in the car and driving down the pit lane, which is a bit disappointing, but I’ve spoken to some really good sportsmen and women who have been at the crossroads where making the call was not easy and they messed it up,” he said.

“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,” the Australian added.

Talking about motivation to stay in the sport, he said: “I remember hearing something about sportsmen and women years ago. They were saying that as long as they could keep their motivation, they would keep going. I could never work out what that meant. How could you lose your motivation? But questions keep coming to me more and more often that were never there in the past.

“It’s not about driving or racing, it’s about keeping my own F1 programme going for 11 months of the year. And it’s just got to the point where it’s like, well, I’ve achieved a lot of things.”

When asked about things that he did not like any more, he said that apart from the dreary routine of checking into hotels, he was worn down by “the repetitive nature of the job and bit of media”.

“But it does, in the end, force you to ask yourself the question: ‘Do I have to be here, doing this?’ And when Porsche came along, I could look myself in the eye and say: ‘Well, you know what, I probably don’t have to do some of those things any more’,” he said.