Highlights

Contract wrangles cloud Webber's F1 future

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-08-01 09:16

HOCKENHEIM, Germany, July 31 - Australian Mark Webber is prepared take a pay cut to secure his Formula One future at Williams as Monday's deadline for the team to take up their 2007 option approached.

The 29-year-old joined Williams at the end of 2004 and can expect a significant salary hike if he is retained for the final two years of the original contract, but with negotiations continuing, the driver may end up earning less than he does now.

"We did basically a four-year deal (in 2004) and Monday is the date where we say yes or no," Webber, who is managed by Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, told reporters at the German Grand Prix.

"It's not no (yet), but it's not yes as it was potentially," he added.

"But we are trying bloody hard to make it work and I think there's a good chance that we will."

Asked whether he would take a salary cut, he said: "Yes".

Williams, an independent team, operate on a tight budget and slashed their driver costs at the end of 2004 when they replaced Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya and Germany's Ralf Schumacher with Webber and Nick Heidfeld.

Team boss Frank Williams has made clear his admiration of the driver, however.

"I think he's really raised his game," he said at the weekend.

"I really think he's done superbly, he really has made a big step forward. He is totally apolitical, which is a rare privilege to have a driver like that."

RENAULT'S RADAR

Webber said a 'fresh relationship' could be the way forward, implying that the existing contract could be allowed to lapse and a new one negotiated for less money than the team would otherwise have to pay.

"We understand the situation the team's in, I think he (Williams) wants to take it (the option) up but now we are in a different situation," he said. "The original plan's not going to work, we have to work something else."

Webber could also be on Renault's radar, with that team needing to replace world champion Fernando Alonso after his move to McLaren.