• Lifeline for Buemi after being discarded by Toro Rosso
• Swiss driver appointed test and reserve driver at Red Bull

Red Bull Racing have thrown a Formula One lifeline to Switzerland’s Sébastien Buemi by appointing him as their test and reserve driver after he was discarded as a race driver by their sister team Toro Rosso.

The 23-year-old will attend grands prix as back-up for the double world champion Sebastian Vettel and the Australian Mark Webber and will also be available to Toro Rosso should they need a stand-in.

“It’s good to remain with Red Bull for another year and have this opportunity with the World Championship winning team,” Buemi said.

“I would prefer to be driving at the races, of course, but working with Red Bull Racing on the development of their car and providing them with feedback throughout the season is the next best thing.”

Buemi has been backed by Red Bull since 2004 and made his race debut in 2009 with the Italian-based Toro Rosso, who will have an all-new line-up next year.

The Red Bull team boss, Christian Horner, said: “He already knows the team well from his time with us in 2008 and has gained significant race experience over the past three years..

“He will complete important test and simulation work for us throughout the year and will be in attendance at each grand prix.”

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• Webber ignored instructions during British Grand Prix
• Australian says he has had ‘positive’ talks over new deal

Mark Webber has insisted Sunday’s team orders saga will have no bearing on his future as he is already in “positive” talks with Red Bull regarding a new contract.

Webber ignored repeated instructions to maintain a gap to team-mate Sebastian Vettel over the closing laps of the British Grand Prix, prompting showdown talks with the team principal, Christian Horner. The situation raised speculation as to whether Webber would remain with the team, only for the owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, to yesterday state the 34-year-old Australian would be signed again for 2012.

As far as Webber is concerned, he told BBC Sport: “The team and I are talking about whether I continue with Red Bull in 2012 and it’s positive. What happened on Sunday does not turn my world upside down.”

Webber, who was forced to settle for third behind Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso at Silverstone, says he has cleared the air with Horner and has no regrets over his course of action.

“Christian and I had a chat about the situation after the race,” said Webber. “We both put our cases forward and I think we came away seeing it from both perspectives. It was obviously a difficult situation, but I still feel comfortable about what I did.

“In that situation, you are hit by conflicting emotions. You want to improve your position, irrespective of who it is in front of you – especially when it is someone at Sebastian’s level, whom you have to work pretty hard to get back on to.”

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• ‘Vettel would have to learn to take losing graciously’
• McLaren driver still has two years left on contract

Lewis Hamilton would be prepared to drive for Red Bull but only if Sebastian Vettel could learn to be a better loser. That was the clear implication from the McLaren driver’s comments on Friday following remarks by the Red Bull principal Christian Horner, that Hamilton and Vettel could not work together.

Horner said: “It’s difficult to see how you could have two drivers of Lewis’s and Sebastian’s calibre under one roof.” He was responding to an observation by the Red Bull team consultant Helmut Marko, that a combination of Hamilton and Vettel would make a fantasy team.

But Hamilton, in an implied criticism of the German world champion, said on Friday: “The only reason I would imagine that he [Horner] would suggest that is because certain individuals don’t like being beaten. Some individuals can take it. Some people are better losers or better winners. So it is just dependant. In this team, when Jenson [Button] beats me I take it on the chin and think, ‘Next time I am going to beat him.’ When I beat him, he doesn’t whinge and say: ‘Oh, Lewis has a better car than me or Lewis did this and I did that.’ There is none of that here, it is very equal. In some places you can imagine it could be different. I never have any complaints. If a guy beats me it is because he has done a better job.”

Hamilton, who has two years of his contract still to run at McLaren, refused to rule out a possible move to Red Bull and a pairing with Vettel if his current employers are unable to match his ambitions.

“It can work. You saw me and Fernando [Alonso]; we were very competitive. You see me and Jenson, so world champions can definitely race together as long as there is equality in the team. There is definitely not that at a couple of the teams around us. At my team you will probably see the most equality out of all the teams.”

The speculation that Hamilton could join Red Bull one day will continue provided the Milton Keynes-based team continue to dominate Formula One. Vettel’s current team-mate, Mark Webber, is 34 and has only a year?to?year deal with the team.

Hamilton said: “It is always good to be against the best guy you can be against because you are obviously compared to that guy in exactly the same equipment.”

Hamilton, who will be discussing his future with his new management team, added: “I’m contracted for the next two years. I am focused on my job now and I want to win world championships here, and I hope that continues, but you never know what happens in the future.”

Webber topped both practice sessions on Friday but the top four drivers were separated by just 0.250sec in the afternoon session. Hamilton is convinced that the Red Bulls are holding something back for on Saturday.

“I’m sure the Red Bulls will pull something out in qualifying,” he said. “I’m sure they’ve another half a second at least to pull out. I hope it’s the case we are a lot closer than at the last race, but we will see.”

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• Red Bull ‘don’t know quite how to behave as champions’
• Responding to claim Vettel would be stupid to join Italian team

Luca di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari, has accused the Red Bull team of a lack of respect towards the sport’s most successful marque.

Red Bull won the drivers’ and constructors’ championships in 2010 and their consultant Helmut Marko told the German newspaper Bild this month that their champion driver, Sebastian Vettel, would be stupid to leave for the Italian glamour team in the coming years.

“I see people who won world championships who don’t quite know how to behave as champions,” Montezemolo said at Ferrari’s ski retreat in north-east Italy. “When they have won 10% of what we have won, then we’ll respond.”

Montezemolo also had a dig at Vettel, who took the driver’s title in last year’s final race in Abu Dhabi after Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso went for an ill-timed pit stop, which cost the Spaniard a third championship.

“I wake up in the night and think of that race,” he said. “I don’t want to say who is the best driver in the world. But I know who is.”

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McLaren’s team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, says the Red Bull drivers are likely to get ‘defensive and tight’ in Korea

It is only five races since Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button arrived in Hungary leading the drivers’ championship but after a devastating sequence of results another poor weekend here will, realistically, kill their title ambitions.

Button has had only one podium position in seven races, while Hamilton has failed to finish in three of his last five outings. But Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren’s team principal, says the British pair can still use their superior experience over Red Bull to provide a late twist to this year’s compelling world championship.

Button, the reigning champion, admitted this week he has been playing mind games on Mark Webber by asking the leader in the title race if he is feeling the pressure and Whitmarsh joined the psychological warfare today when he said: “I think it would be tough to take for Red Bull to lose the championship now.”

Both McLaren drivers have won world titles while neither Webber nor Sebastian Vettel have. And while Red Bull are title virgins McLaren have won 20 world championships (12 drivers and eight constructors) .

“We have a lot of experience on our side and two great drivers,” Whitmarsh said. “I hope it’s massively important and decisive. Both our guys know what it’s like – even if you’re leading a championship – when the pressure comes. It’s very easy to get defensive and tight.

“Both our guys have been through that. I think that’s good. And the team has been around for a lot of world championship victories. It would be convenient and nice to believe that the comparative lack of experience at finishing off a championship at Red Bull, both for the team and drivers, was going to be decisive. But I don’t think I can rely upon that, unfortunately.”

Hamilton and Button, who have both led the championship, now languish in fourth and fifth places, 28 and 31 points behind Webber, but Whitmarsh is conceding nothing yet. “If you look at the number of races where Red Bull have had the quickest qualifying car, they’re ahead of ourselves and Ferrari,” he said. “But they can be disappointed that they’ve allowed us to out-race them on quite a few occasions. That will be weighing on their minds as we get into the championship finale. I’m sure they feel some sense of frustration.”

It certainly would be devastating for Red Bull to lose the two world titles from here, especially after their frustrations last season. But even if Webber and Vettel fail to win this year the title would most likely go to Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, the form driver with two victories and a third place in the last three races, who is currently second in the standings after a wretched mid-season.

There have been both mistakes and misfortunes at McLaren. “Every race has had a different story. Jenson being taken out, T-boned, in the middle of a race [Spa] was undeniably not our fault,” Whitmarsh said. “It’s frustrating but I don’t spend a lot of time on that. There are 75 driver points to be taken so it’s mathematically well within our grasp. We’ve come here with new parts on the car and the determination to see if we can win here and score good points.”

At least the week got off to a good start. On Thursday they announced that the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes title partnership has been extended to the end of the 2013 season, while Hamilton is dismissing notions that he might leave a team that has struggled in recent races. He also said he is not tempted by the biggest team of them all, Ferrari.

“Ferrari is a legendary team and it’s one of those teams that has made the history, alongside McLaren,” he said. “But I don’t think their cars look anywhere near as nice as ours. I’m sure they don’t have a factory like we have. I don’t know the bosses at Ferrari but Martin [Whitmarsh] is an exceptional human being and so is Ron [Dennis]. Working with people like that is something lots of people would wish to have. So I feel very fortunate.

“When I was at McLaren last week, for example, looking around, I saw that it was such a professional team that I honestly can’t see myself anywhere else. That’s how I feel at the moment. You never know what’s going to happen in the future. Never say never. We’ve not always had the best car. We’ve not always done a perfect job. But it’s a fantastic team with great history and at least for as far as I can see I will be here for as long as they want to keep me.”

When Hamilton was reminded of the fact that some argue that you cannot have a complete career in Formula One without driving for Ferrari, he replied: “Look at Ayrton Senna. He was the best driver of all time and he was at McLaren. So I’ll be happy to stay.”

He will be even happier if he can claw into Webber’s 28-point lead on Sunday.

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• Red Bull’s new front wing has come under scrutiny
• ‘You should never penalise things that are ingenious’

Mark Webber has told his rivals to stop trying to find fault with Red Bull and concentrate on resolving their own issues.

Red Bull’s latest front wing design concept has come under considerable scrutiny due to its flexibility at high speed, when it is supposed to remain static. Ferrari have also developed their own version and both have passed FIA tests, but although no team has lodged a formal protest there have been plenty of complaints.

The FIA tests will be improved ahead of the Belgian grand prix after the Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn claimed they are “not correct”. But after Red Bull’s innovative exhaust blown diffuser was also frowned upon before rivals caught up last season, championship leader Webber feels the criticism is all a lot of hot air.

“Our guys have broken their balls to design a car in the spirit of the regulations, and every time we are tested by the FIA, we pass,” said Webber. “The car has always been passed by the FIA, so when people don’t like what they see on the stopwatch, they have to justify their own positions sometimes. When there’s pressure on people to perform and they’re getting destroyed, that’s how it is.

“Some teams have done certain things, other teams have done other things. McLaren incorporated the F-duct, which is a sensational idea. We’ve turned the world upside down to try and do that which is not without resource difficulties, but that’s Formula One.

“We’re more than happy with what we have on the car, and we’re sleeping well at night. You should never penalise things that are ingenious, and people who are doing a good job, and that’s sometimes the case. There’s always something new to bring out of the cupboard.”

Webber feels if the critics want to harp on about parity, then Red Bull should be allowed to equalise their engines in line with other teams. At present the Renault powerplant is down on horsepower compared to the likes of Mercedes, as used by the German manufacturer, McLaren and Force India.

“We’ve been looking for engine parity for the last few years because we know we don’t have the most powerful engine,” he said. “When we go to a track where there are not many straights, the car is good because we’ve had to try incredibly hard to get the car performing on those circuits.

“Other teams sometimes want everything, but we need parity on the engine and then it would be a fair game. That’s all we want, similar horsepower to other teams. It’s not a one-way street with this stuff you know.”

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• Fernando Alonso is second fastest for Ferrari
• Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both off the pace

Mark Webber dominated the second practice session of the British grand prix here, with the Australian posting the fastest time of the day ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and his Red Bull team-mate, Sebastian Vettel.

On a day when Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button both struggled in their McLarens, Webber, who is 24 points behind championship leader Hamilton, placed the memory of his crash in last month’s Valencia grand prix behind him. With Vettel in third there appears a real prospect of Red Bull repeating last year’s 1-2 finish here.

Webber, who clocked a time of 1min 31.234sec around the new-look Silverstone circuit, said: “It was a pretty good day apart from the electrical problem at the end, which was a shame – we lost a few laps.” The 33-year-old lost around 15 minutes of the session due to the malfunction but Webber has confidence in his Red Bull ahead of qualifying.

“The car seems to be going pretty well here. I think a few of the other teams were sandbagging a bit [purposefully going slow], but we’re happy with our programme and looking forward to qualifying. The new section of the track is pretty difficult, but it’s a good challenge.”

Vettel, who like Webber benefited from a switch to softer tyres, is ahead of his team-mate in third in the championship with 115 points, 12 behind Hamilton. He said: “The sessions were OK today – in the afternoon we had a bit of a spin and flat-spotted a set of hard tyres. We also had a problem with the brake pedal but nothing big. The pace of the car was good.

“The new section of the track is quite low speed, but it’s not as slow as we expected and doesn’t kill the rhythm. It adds something new and makes it more of a challenge. The track here is magnificent, it’s good fun, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Alonso, meanwhile, was content but insistent that Ferrari had to improve. “It’s been a pretty good Friday but we know we have to improve the car,” he said. “The Red Bulls are a lot quicker than us at the moment, so we’ll try to get as close as possible tomorrow to have a good Saturday.”

The Spaniard also feels there is more to come from the McLarens. “It will be very close tomorrow. We saw at Valencia too that McLaren on Friday was far back in the second session and then on Saturday Hamilton was in front of us and Button right behind. I think it will be similar, with three or four teams fighting for positions and let’s hope we are a bit in front of them.”

One driver not at Silverstone this weekend is Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time champion Ayrton, though his HRT F1 team said last night that the Brazilian will get the drive for the rest of the season.

Senna has been replaced here by Sakon Yamamoto, possibly because the Japanese driver has greater financial backing, and a statement from Hispania said: “In respect to the rumours about Bruno Senna’s current [status] with Hispania, the team wants to confirm that he has all the support, that he remains one of [our] official drivers and he will be continuing to drive the remaining races.”

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