Horner backs Webber for 2011 championship bid

The 34-year-old had the best year of his career - winning four out of seven races during the middle of the season - though he was ultimately beaten by both Vettel and Fernando Alonso in the standings.

When asked during a visit to AUTOSPORT pushlisher Haymarket's London headquarters whether he thinks Webber has another title push in him, Horner said: "Absolutely, I don't see any reason why not.

"He is driving tremendously well. This year he has performed in an exceptionally hard year and I think there are lessons that he will take out of 2010 that he will build on in 2011.

"I think he'll take a little bit of time to reflect, but when he looks back in the cold light of day at this year, he can be very proud of what he has achieved. He has won four grands prix, he has won the jewel in the crown at Monaco, where he was absolutely supreme, he was in the championship battle right until the last race."

Horner says that Webber will take some time to recover from the disappointment of not winning the title, but expects him to return fresh in 2011.

"So many drivers of the five main contenders can look back at the season with ifs and buts, all having been in contention at some point in the year - the only time Sebastian led the championship was after Abu Dhabi," Horner added.

"Mark led for several months during the summer. Obviously there is disappointment in not having achieved his ultimate goal, but I think he has driven very, very well this year. He will recharge his batteries and will come back in 2011 with the lessons that he has learned this year, and I think he'll push equally as hard and be equally as competitive."

SOURCE: Autosport

He needs to work on the end of season performances, like Button in 2009, they both tailed off about 60% of the way through the season and Webber seemed to not want to be there in the final race. The car could be to blame but its wierd if thats the case as Vettel managed to get the pace out of it so I wander what happened to Webber.

Pressure of expectation. Webber couldn't handle it, which would more than likely explain the loss of performance in Abu Dhabi. I wouldn't compare him and JB in this case, at least - people seem to forget Button kept having fantastic races last year (bar Valencia), it was just his qualifying that let him down (ala this entire year). Not to mention, when the point of expectation hit biggest, Button delivered in spectacular fashion.

Plus, look at the scenario between the two - Button was well in the clear, he didn't really have a threat. Webber had not only Alonso, but Vettel and to some extent Hamilton too. Abu Dhabi really portrayed the "nothing to lose" mentality wins over conservativeness.

Well thats the thing, he needs to get the qualifying pace up there as he has shown he can get to the front but when others have cars of equal footing or slightly better he has not done as well with teams like Renault and Mercedes with technically inferior cars ahead. I am not dissing Button, he does far better than I could do, just he is not in the same league as a Vettel or Hamilton or Alonso et al.

I feel thats even more reason to compare as Webber had more competition than Button who almost threw it away compared to Webber who had a couple of unlucky races like South Korea but still should have been further ahead. Both have let themselves down in qualifying recently.

Mark panicked in the Tyre graining phase and felt they were going off, But The leading 3 Vettel and McLaren's chose to push through it, this and the Schumi/Liuzzi accident just led to the result of the race thus championship.

The leading 3 pushed through the graining phase and came out the other side with a good tyre, Mark had the pace, but I feel he was just not supported enough and that can do detriments to a sportsman, especially when in competitive leagues like F1, Mark was deflated going into the weekend and from there it wasn't gonna happen.

JB can deliver when the time is asked of him, Brazil 2009 says it all, same with this year, Qualiy lets him down is his main issue.