It was expected anyway, but it seems that the furore over the collision between the pair last week and the reaction to it may have hastened the confirmation.

Webber, 33, is in the form of his career, leading the world championship with four poles and two wins this season. “It was an easy decision to remain with Red Bull Racing,” he said. “We began talking very early this year and were in a position to sign by the Barcelona Grand Prix. The decision to extend for a further year was a mutual one; it’s widely known that I’m not interested in hanging around in Formula 1 just for the sake of it and at this stage of my career, I’m happy to take one year at a time.

“I continue to feel very comfortable here – I have a fantastic relationship with the whole team and the factory at Milton Keynes feels like home. It’s been incredible to be part of the team as it’s moved forward from a mid-field competitor to one that is challenging for the Championship.”

Red Bull is based on the old Jaguar team, which was a serial failure in F1. Webber committed himself to them in 2003, but it didn’t work out and he went to Williams in 2005, just as the relationship with BMW fell apart. When presented with a chance to go back to Milton Keynes to what was now Red Bull in 2007 he took it and the team and he have risen up together. It doesn’t happen all that often in F1; Schumacher did it with Benetton and the Ferrari team of the late 1990s, Button did it last year but there aren’t many examples. Most of the winning is done by the established teams and newcomers don’t often get a chance to break into that dominance.

Webber speaks of a collective desire to win the world championship rather than a personal one. “I hope we experience more success together in the future and achieve our ultimate goal of winning the world championship, ” he says.

As a rule, F1 drivers’ income is 70% retainer and 30% bonus, based on podiums, wins and championship position. My sources suggest that Red Bull operates slightly differently with more like 40% retainer and 60% bonus. Vettel and Webber get around €3.5 million each in retainer and so they could more than double that on current trends of results this season. Next season Webber would expect to have a good car again, so he has a chance to earn very well.

The announcement comes ahead of what are likely to be two of the toughest races of the season for Red Bull. With long straights and no high speed corners, Montreal will be tricky, as will Valencia to a lesser extent.

Meanwhile Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko has been interviewed on Italian website 422.com and he confirms that Red Bull will not use the drag reducing F duct rear wing.

Here is a snatch of the Q&A with him.

What is now your position on the accident?
“The accident is over. We had the meeting in Thursday and
everything is over and solved, also for the drivers.”

Will it change anything in the way you manage the drivers in
the next few races?
“It will change nothing in our policy for the next few
races. The two drivers can still freely battle, but they
always have to let through each other. That was the
conclusion.”

What do you answer to the criticism that you are favouring
Vettel?
“We don’t favour anyone. Clearly we have two drivers who
have the same rights.”

The second answer is the interesting one. It has obviously been decided that in a situation where one team mate decides to have a lunge for a pass, the one in the lead has to let him through. That should make for some interesting situations as the championship reaches its conclusion.

It’s good that Red Bull takes this attitude and wants its drivers to race. They have a lot to lose potentially, but I think that the fans will respect them for letting the drivers race, especially now that the whole area of the team allegedly favouring Vettel has been aired and put away again, which is a positive. And before you ask, there is no chance that this new deal for Webber is some kind of sop to let Vettel be the favoured runner for the championship. He would not have accepted a deal like that.

Webber looks rather contrite in the video, but he also seems quite resolute. He talks of his own championship quest and the fact that it is going to be uncomfortable at times with two team mates fighting at the front, but makes the point that this is nothing that teams like Williams, Ferrari and McLaren haven’t dealt with in the past.

He is obviously talking on the Sunday evening after the race. The tone of the video is “all for one and one for all” and he talks about the team needing to work together to put the controversy behind them.

From experience, the rather stilted way he’s speaking is actually the way he talks to foreigners, he does it in media briefings, almost as is he feels he needs to speak more clearly when answering a non-English speaker.

“Sebastian tried a move, both of us.. in the end it didn’t work out, ” he says. “One of us could have won the race, but in the end we only got one third place.

“If you look back obviously after it all happens you of course want to do things differently. That;s something we learn as a team. We are in uncharted waters, both of us leading the championship. The team collectively with the drivers need to learn how to deal with these situations better in the future.”

“We are a new team. We are still learning. In Turkey we learned in a way which was not in the best way, but McLaren and Ferrari have had these days, They know how it can be when you have some adversity. We need to be united as a team and keep going.”

It comes at an interesting time for Webber as he was into discussions about a contract renewal for next year. How this situation unfolds over the coming weeks will obviously have a bearing on that.

The public reaction to the way Red Bull managed the crisis on Sunday has been largely negative, particularly in the English speaking world.

It’s impressive in many ways that Red Bull has left the comments section open on its website as there is overwhelming negativity in the 1000 + comments left there about the team’s pro-Vettel stance and in particular Dr Marko’s statements about the incident, which Horner has rowed back on a little with his Tuesday afternoon statement. The team now classes it as a ‘racing incident that shouldn’t have happened between team mates’ and Horner noted that Dr Marko also fully shares that view.”

Horner defends Vettel for having a run at Webber, because he says that to back him off would have led to him being passed by Hamilton, but he notes that Webber held his line “Which he was entitled to do. When Sebastian was three quarters of the way past he moved to the right.”

Red Bull likes to be seen as an edgy brand and they are certainly getting that at the moment, albeit they would prefer the message to be success on the cutting edge, rather than their internal politics splashed all over the media.

All a bit of a blur - Red Bull is too fast for rivals

“I came here thinking that we could really put on a challenge now and it’s not gone that way. We really need to look into it, in terms of our competitors we are not where we want to be and we have made a small step back, ” said Nico Rosberg, currently second in the world championship.

“One team is untouchable while the other top three teams are very close,” said Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali.

Mercedes boss Ross Brawn broke down exactly how the Red Bull is setting such unreachable lap times in qualifying trim,
“We can see where they are quick,” he said.”Turn 9, the high speed corner, they are quite exceptional through. It’s high speed corners and this is a track where there are lots of high speed corners. That’s their strength. It was also their strength last year but they had a weakness in slow corners last year. This year they are good in slow corners and had retained their ability in high speed corners.”

What is particularly striking is that they are only 20th and 21st through the speed trap 9km/h slower than the Ferrari, which is a lot to give away.

World Championship leader Jenson Button said,” They have very good traction and they can carry speed through the corners because they have a stable rear end. On corner exit they are very strong. I’m a little bit surprised at how quick they are. They are in a very good position.”

Everybody has come to Barcelona with improvements to their cars. Red Bull has been secretive about the new parts it has on its car, except to admit that the mechanics have had hardly any sleep over the last two nights as they fitted the new parts. There are obvious updates on the front wing and detail on the diffuser, there is also some improvement to the floor. Clearly the downforce creating elements of the rear of the car, the diffuser and the rear wing are giving the car a very stable rear end and this is balanced out by a large and sophisticated front wing.

However McLaren believe that the Red Bull is not so far ahead in race trim as it is harder on its tyres than the other top teams. With the top ten cars starting the race on the soft tyres on which they qualified, the long fast corners will ask a lot of questions of the front left tyre and it will be interesting to see how the Red Bull handles the opening stint on full fuel tanks.

From what we saw in Friday practice, however, the Red Bull looked pretty good on the long runs. Webber did a 19 lap run which was pretty consistent in the 1m 24s and 1m25s, tailing off in the final three laps into the 1m 26s. At the same time Schumacher did a 14 lap run which started in the 1m25s and slipped into the 1m26s after six laps.

“It´s a surprise for all the others but also for us,” said Vettel. “It´s a dangerous thing as well because we need to keep pushing and also to confirm it tomorrow (in the race).

“It might look comfortable today but you only get points in the race – we´ve been in this position before…”

He set a lap of 1m 19.965, which is 1/100th of a second slower than the outright fastest lap in qualifying last year. Red Bull team mate Mark Webber was second fastest with Michael Schumacher in the revised Mercedes third. The Red Bull pair were separated by just 2/10ths of a second.

Many rivals, including Fernando Alonso were saying after the session that the Red Bulls are untouchable this weekend, but Vettel sounded a note of caution, saying that the McLarens in particular are the cars he fears,
“We’ve got a few changes on our car, but I don’t think anything as significant as perhaps some of the other teams. I think we’ve proved today that our changes work. The lap times are irrelevant from Friday. It’s good to be fast but I thing the McLarens are quick here – I don’t think they were pushing today. It will be much closer tomorrow.”

McLaren topped the times in the morning session, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Jenson Button, but in the afternoon Hamilton was fifth and Button 9th. The team has brought an extensive package of upgrades to this race including new front and rear wings, specifically targetted qualifying for improvement after having failed to better fourth on the grid this season. And as the Grand Prix in Barcelona tends to be won from pole, they will be aiming for at least one car on the front row. Button said that he is struggling to get the two tyre compounds to work in their ideal operating range.

Schumacher looked happier than he has of late in a Mercedes, featuring a revised front suspension layout to improve weight distribution and a new air intake, which helps the rear wing in particular. Schumacher was faster than team mate Nico Rosberg in both sessions today, but tomorrow’s qualifying will be the acid test.

Ferrari have looked slightly anxious this weekend, needing their upgraded car, with an F duct rear wing and a new front wing to bring them closer to the pace of Red Bull. Alonso was fourth fastest with Felipe Massa 8th.

For Williams Nico Hulkenberg was running a car with a few updates to the diffuser and sidepods and had an off in it, while team mate Rubens Barrichello is running a new floor on his car and wound up 15th. Hulkenberg will have the new floor tomorrow. Technical director Sam Michael said that the team has a new front wing for tomorrow as well.

Renault had a strong day with Robert Kubica seventh in the morning and sixth in the afternoon. They have a smaller package of upgrades than many of the others having brought forward the new front wing to China.

Of the new teams Lotus were fastest, while Timo Glock debuted the new Virgin longer chassis, which gives them a correctly sized fuel tank. He set the slowest time of the 24 car field.

SPANISH GRAND PRIX PRACTICE TIMES
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:19.965 24
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:20.175 + 0.210 35
3. Schumacher Mercedes 1:20.757 + 0.792 28
4. Alonso Ferrari 1:20.819 + 0.854 30
5. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.191 + 1.226 23
6. Kubica Renault 1:21.202 + 1.237 36
7. Rosberg Mercedes 1:21.271 + 1.306 27
8. Massa Ferrari 1:21.302 + 1.337 25
9. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.364 + 1.399 26
10. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:21.518 + 1.553 32
11. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:21.672 + 1.707 37
12. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:21.904 + 1.939 32
13. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:21.931 + 1.966 29
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.184 + 2.219 37
15. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:22.192 + 2.227 33
16. Petrov Renault 1:22.435 + 2.470 35
17. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.449 + 2.484 34
18. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:23.765 + 3.800 7
19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.209 + 4.244 26
20. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:24.894 + 4.929 22
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:25.066 + 5.101 30
22. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth 1:25.972 + 6.007 23
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:26.152 + 6.187 25
24. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:26.596 + 6.631 21

After one run mid way through the session a mechanic took the wing off Vettel’s car and fitted it to Webbers and vice versa. They would do this to check some fine detail on how the wheel behaved in steering and to look at the yaw.

This is the kind of fine detail work the teams are involved in as they test out their new aerodynamic parts ahead of qualifying and the race.

See if you can spot the difference between the two wings. It’s pretty hard but there is a difference. Leave a comment if you find it.

Be sure to check in later today when we will do an in depth analysis of the exciting new tech on the cars in the LG Tech Report.

It was another race where the start was decisive. That move by Vettel was the key. Webber finished second, with Nico Rosberg third. Robert Kubica had another strong performance, jumping up to fourth place at the start, as in Melbourne and holding that place until the finish. And Adrian Sutil underlined Force India’s credentials with a strong drive to fifth place.

Of the big names who started at the back of the field after misjudging qualifying, Lewis Hamilton got the best result in sixth. He made up 8 places at the start. Hamilton had another swashbuckling afternoon with some strong overtaking manoeuvres. He was warned by the stewards about his driving after he weaved several times to break the tow and shake off Vitalt Petrov, who proved quite tough to pass; the first time Hamilton passed him, Petrov passed him right back again, using the Renault’s impressive straight line speed, which allowed him to compete with the McLaren.

Vettel would now be dominating the championship with 75 points on the board were it not for poor reliability on the Red Bull car in Bahrain and Melbourne and this win will come as a great relief to the team.

A 1-2 finish on a day when both McLaren and Ferrari scored minor placings boosted both Vettel and Red Bull’s championship positions. Vettel is now joint second with 37 points, two points off the lead, while the team leapt from fifth to third in the constructors’ table.

The German got a good start from third place on the grid and hauled past Nico Rosberg to challenge Webber into Turn 1. The Australian covered him initially but then opened the door in the braking zone and Vettel eased through.

“I had a good start and got the tow from Mark, I took the chance I had in Turn 1, ” said Vettel. “We both pushed, we had to fight and we had respect for each other. After that it was a question of getting away from our competitors.

“What a day. We had a magnificent car and the key was to pace yourself. It’s a good result after two races where we didn’t finish where we want to be.”

Webber put a brave face on his loss, but said that the team “blew everyone away” today and praised the spirit of the Red Bull team.

The rain which had tormented the teams in qualifying failed to materialise on race day and it was a race where teams had to decide the right tyre strategy for dry conditions. Complicating the situation was the fact that the track was green at the start after all the rain on Saturday, increasing the tyre degradation.

Starting from the back of the grid, Lewis Hamilton and the two Ferraris opted to run a long first stint on the hard tyres, whereas most drivers went for the soft tyres and a shorter first stint. The drivers on soft tyres pitted from around lap 20 onwards, with the Red Bulls getting 24 and 25 laps out of their tyres.

Jenson Button started on softs and made another very early call for tyres on lap 10, because he wasn’t making the progress through the field that Hamilton was. But this time it was the wrong call, as he was forced to do 46 laps on the hard tyres. Towards the end he was really struggling as the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso caught him.

Fernando Alonso lost the championship lead to team mate Felipe Massa after he retired in the final laps when his engine let go. It was the third Ferrari engine problem along with both Saubers. Both Ferraris had required some work in parc ferme on the engines’ pneumatic system.

Alonso had an impressive race, considering that he also had a gear selection problem from the early stages of the race. He went to lap 37 on the hard tyres and around 30 laps into the race he was able to match the lap times of Vettel who had recently pitted for new hard tyres.

Michael Schumacher, who got a great start and went from 8th to 6th, retired on lap 10, with a loose wheel nut while his nemesis from Melbourne, Jaime Alguersuari, scored his first F1 points in 10th place.

Virgin Racing got its first finish, with Lucas di Grassi despite having a fuel tank which isn’t large enough, by leaning the engine out. While both Hispania cars made it to the finish, along with Jarno Trulli’s Lotus.

MALAYSIAN GP, Sepang, 56 laps
1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault
2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.8s
3. Rosberg Mercedes + 13.5s
4. Kubica Renault + 18.5s
5. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 21.0s
6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 23.4s
7. Massa Ferrari + 27.0s
8. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 37.9s
9. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m10.6s
10. Hulkenberg Williams + 1m13.3s
11. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1m18.9s
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Alonso Ferrari + 2 laps
14. Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
15. Chandhok Hispania-Cosworth + 3 laps
16. Senna Hispania-Cosworth + 4 laps
17. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 5 laps

We thought that Silverstone may have been a turning point of the season, with the almost brand new Red Bull car which dominated the weekend. Today we got confirmation that it was – and it is not just because of the high speed corners that the car was quick there. They are now the fastest car out there on any kind of circuit and as Ross Brawn and his team huddle in their debrief tonight they have a lot to chew over. Rubens Barrichello’s outburst on the BBC is the talk of the paddock tonight and Brawn looked furious when I saw him after he learned about it. This is the second time that Barrichello has come out with some strong words against his own team, the other occasion being Barcelona.

I can understand him being unhappy that the team switched the order of the final pit stops, giving Jenson the chance to pass him, but Jenson was faster at that stage of the race. Nevertheless it again gives a clear signal that the team wants Jenson to fight for the title and the extra point he gained here may be vital at the end of the season, given how quickly his lead is being eroded by Vettel and Webber.

But what cost Rubens a shot at victory and certainly a podium was the refuelling issue at the second stop. The first rig did not work so they had to go for a second one. Rubens thought he was fuelled to the finish but wasn’t. I can’t see Ross forgiving him for the way he spoke about the team and about Ross. He’s been on the wrong end of things in the past at Ferrari and this is uncomfortable territory for both men.

It’s always a bad sign when a team starts arguing with itself in defeat and they have to rally from this low point.

Here the Brawns were beaten on pace and they were also put into a corner on race tactics, as they were obliged to run a three stop strategy because they could not get the hard tyre to work and yet they could only run short stints on the soft because of the severe graining problems they encountered.

Red Bull had no such problems and were able to stick the hard tyres on Webber’s car at the first stop and watch as he pulled out fantastic lap times to stay in touch with Barrichello, despite having lost 15 seconds due to the drive through penalty.

Barrichello ran the early part of his second stint behind Massa’s Ferrari and lost time, while Webber was able to reel him in.

The wider problem for Brawn is that Red Bull sensed back in March that they could win this championship and have thrown their not insignificant resources at developing this car. You never know when you are going to get another chance to win a workd championship so you have to maximise your opportunities.

They have very impressive production facilities now and can turn new pieces around very quickly. The design for the Silverstone update only left Adrian Newey’s desk to go into production  around the time of the Monaco GP weekend, so they turned a huge update around very quickly.

Brawn has gone from 700 people to 450 this year, where Red Bull has gone the opposite way, although with budget cuts imminent for F1 the new people are all on contract, not staff and many of them came from Brawn.

Red  Bull can see that Brawn has to have one eye on saving some money for next year and they sense a weakness. The rest of the season RBR will develop relentlessly to keep locking out these 1-2 finishes and try to take both championships. Certainly the lads on the shop floor at Red Bull think they will do it.

Of course at some point they will have to decide which of their drivers is going for the championship. At the moment with Webber and Vettel on winning form and a gal between them of only 15 points that is a decision they cannot make. Webber reminds them that Vettel has crashed three times this year and could do so again, but Vettel has until this weekend, been the faster driver. It’s a wonderful battle and it has brought this world championship to life

That is the great adage of the sporting world. So what are we to make of what’s happening at the moment in F1? Is this the start of a change of order, with great names like McLaren, Renault and Ferrari in decline and new teams like Red Bull and Brawn the new top dogs?

Anyone who says that would be guilty of serious short term thinking or buying hype. Those three teams deserve great respect for their record of success spanning many years, they are not to be written off so easily.

You look at the first three races of the season, with two wins for Brawn and one for Red Bull and glance across at the constructors’ championship, where those two teams top the table with McLaren a distant fourth, Renault creeping along in 6th and Ferrari yet to get of the mark and you say to yourself, “Double diffusers.”

Except that you remember that Red Bull doesn’t have one of those, so then you say to yourself, “Ah well, the top teams were pushing to the end of last season, Brawn and Red Bull were on 2009 by then.” And you would have a point.

But does this mean that the old order will be returned once the top teams get their clever aero parts? Can Brawn and Red Bull stay out front all season and if they do, will they be able to do it again next year?

In my live twitter feed of today’s race, one of my final postings was to suggest that Sebastien Vettel has now done enough to show the ‘top teams’ what he has to offer and to speculate how long Red Bull would be able to hold on to him.

I’ve had plenty of responses on that and I imagine there will be more following this post. Many took me to be implying that Red Bull are not a top team, despite their current championship position. Others suggested that being up there now means that they have already ‘made it’ and are now de facto a top team, heck they might even run away with it once they get their double diffuser, so why would Vettel move elsewhere?

I don’t think even Red Bull’s management believes that. But they have been building up to this for some time now, they have a talented technical staff led by the great Adrian Newey and they have a billionaire owner who can spends bonkers money on whatever he wants in life and who may just have rediscovered his passion for F1 today.

Then you contemplate the main item on the agenda when FOTA next meets the FIA; the £30 million budget cap. This is like the time bomb which was planted in F1 a few weeks ago and has since been fogotten in all the hype about the McLaren liar-gate scandal and the three crazy races we’ve been enjoying.

Not many people in F1 believe that the budget cap will happen as billed, but it’s looking like a budget cap of some kind will come in and that will limit the ways in which the old ‘top teams’ can beat the new ‘top teams’.

Brawn is a good example of a team which, as Honda, was guilty of the spending excesses of all the F1 manufacturers. Now with a smaller staff, a leaner budget and a customer engine, it is the shining example of what the old ‘top teams’ must emulate if they are to limbo under the budget cap bar next season. It’s been painful for the staff who have been laid off, but it’s given Max Mosley an example to point at and say, “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Red Bull is built on the same model… a pattern is starting to emerge here. If we think like Darwin about this, the survival of he fittest and the most fitting and all that, then the teams at the front now are already equipped for the evolution F1 is to go into next year. Of course their weakness is that those customer engines have to come from manufacturers and that could all get quite political…

This season is far from over and I’m sure we all expect Ferrari, Renault and McLaren to win before the final race. And we find it hard to imagine that they won’t be back fighting for the title in 2010.

But they have a lot on their plate at the moment and if the financial playing field is levelled next year, we could end up with a lot of ‘top teams’.

So maybe Vettel will stay put after all….

PS – one of my readers, Andy Fov made this observation on the Form vs Class debate..

“And the class of Brawn and Newey is permanent. All this talk of “a new order in F1″, there’s not. It was a case of Brawn Vs Newey today. It might as well have been 1998.”

Very good point Andy. It’s amazing how some things never change in F1.

The German driver says in the Red Bull press release reviewing today’s track action,
” It’s very hot and no matter how much you prepare, the first outing is a bad surprise. Fortunately I’ve got a bag with dry ice in it, which I put next to my balls, so at least they stay nice and cool.”

Two questions, Seb.
1. What happens if you have a shunt and the bag bursts?
2. Does this reveal which part of your anatomy really does the thinking?

The car looks pretty cool, I like the long think nose and the experts seem to think that there is a lot of tidy detail there, showing that the extra time in the wind-tunnel has been well spent.

The fact that Adrian Newey has been pushed into the foreground on this launch is interesting and tells me two things; first that he thinks the car is a real winner and is happy to be strongly identified with its design and second that as (surely) Red Bull’s highest paid employee they are keen to get as much value out of him as possible.

Rumours have him being paid in the £8 million a year range. If the FIA gets it’s €50 million a year budget plan through, it’ll be very interesting to see how he and RBR deal with that!

It’s not uncommon for Newey cars to come out a little later that others, but with so little testing they have to hope that the reliability is there.

Mark Webber drives the car on Wednesday. I’m told that he is well ahead of schedule on his rehab because he’s very fit and because he’s done all the right things to get it to heal as well as possible. It’s the right leg, so not the load bearing leg for braking. If he was doing a load bearing sport, like soccer he’d be out for another three months.

Team principal Christian Horner mentioned in his Q&A that the team will slim down a little because there is no test team. The figure I hear is that there will be 70 redundancies.