Mark Webber almost wore red during the 2013 season after revealing that unsigned contracts had been written up for him to join Ferrari.
The Australian made the revelation in his recently-released book ‘Aussie Grit’.
According to Webber, who chose to remain at Red Bull for another season before retiring, talks with Ferrari were at an advanaced stage to the point that contracts had been drawn up for his switch.
“The meeting was with Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team principal, on Flavio’s boat in the famous Monaco harbour,” he wrote.
“There was now a very real chance I would be joining the Prancing Horse team. Flavio, Stefano, and Fernando [Alonso] all wanted it to happen; contracts were sent but they were for one year plus an option, instead of the two years we were pushing for.
“I just wasn’t interested in switching to another F1 team for 2013 when in July of that season they might tell me my services wouldn’t be required the following year.
“I remember driving to [Silverstone] on the Friday morning and chatting with Fernando on the phone. We swapped a few more calls and although he asked me to wait for a bit longer, my gut was telling me Ferrari wasn’t right for me.”
With Red Bull catching wind of the possible deal, Webber says they began approaching different drivers, with the most notable one being Lewis Hamilton.
“Red Bull were having a bit of fun talking to other drivers too, Lewis in particular, as they had clearly got wind of the Ferrari approach, so there had been no dialogue about extending my contract,” he added.
“At Silverstone, however, Christian [Horner] suddenly wanted me to sign a new deal for 2013, which we did a few days later.
“It would have been a change of scenery to go to Ferrari: it was also nice to feel a little bit wanted.”
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