» It’s looking brighter for Webber…

It’s becoming increasingly likely that Mark Webber will remain at Red Bull into the 2012 season – and possibly beyond – according to the latest comments attributed to team boss Christian Horner.

Webber remains the sole major team member yet to be re-signed to the team beyond 2011, and the Australian has generally struggled in the shadows of his ever-impressive team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Recent rumours had suggested that Lewis Hamilton would make a shock switch from McLaren to the Milton Keynes squad, but both parties have been quick to quash any such suggestions.

Indeed, Horner has told Austria’s Servus TV that the team will more than likely field an unchanged line-up into the 2012 season.

“Well, that’s very, very likely,” he replied when asked about Mark Webber staying on board.

“We have agreed to sit down a bit later and then focus on next year,” he continued, adding that team “harmony” is the most important factor when considering driver line-up.

However – despite having finished third at last weekend’s European Grand Prix, a race he described as his most competitive of the season – Webber is still coming under criticism from some quarters.

“”He is showing none of the fire that he showed last season, which helped him fight Vettel and make the championship so exciting,” former Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert wrote in his regular newspaper column in The National. “Until he finds it again I do not see him competing for wins.”

[Image via The Cahier Archive]