LONDON: Mark Webber could stay on at Formula One champions Red Bull after this season if the Australian remains as quick as he was last year, according to team boss Christian Horner.

The 34-year-old Australian, whose hopes of the title were dashed in the last race of 2010 by 23-year-old German team mate Sebastian Vettel, is out of contract with Red Bull at the end of the year.

He will be starting his fifth successive season with them when the championship starts in Bahrain on March 13.

“Mark isn't approaching this year that (as if) this is his final year,” Horner told Reuters at a Motor Sport magazine Hall of Fame event on Tuesday night.

“I think we both agreed to keep the contract on a yearly basis at this stage in his career because it's important for us to see that he's got the speed, the motivation, the hunger and commitment.

“All of which look undiminished at the moment. If anything, (they are) burning brighter than ever.

“So we'll see how this season develops and obviously as we head towards the latter part of the summer then we'll start to talk about the following season,” added the Briton, whose team won both titles last year.

“If he's delivering at the same level as he did in 2010 then why not?” he said.

Webber ended last year third overall after leading the championship and winning four races, including the showcase Monaco Grand Prix.

Horner said it had been hard for the Australian, who broke his leg in 2008 and then fractured his shoulder in another mountain bike fall last year while leading the standings, to see Vettel triumph in Abu Dhabi as youngest ever champion.

“It was tough for Mark to take,” he recognised.

“But Mark's mentally a tough competitor and I think he will use that inwardly as motivation to come back even more determined, more focused and I think he's come back leaner, lighter and extremely motivated.”

Webber complained last year that his Austrian-owned team were favouring Vettel but Horner dismissed that again and said he would have equal treatment again.

“I think if he didn't believe that, he'd stop,” he said.

“He's a strong enough character that if he didn't believe it, he would have stopped at the end of the year.”