Webber should have stayed in F1...

[Scott]

...says Mr. 20%, Briatore (although he would, wouldn't he?).

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109137

[Jericoke]

That's an interesting read, thanks Scott 

A few thoughts of my own though:

• I don't think Mark wants a job taking points from Seb's rivals.  He wants to win, and he's not going to do that in F1.
• I also think that in a 'lesser' series he'll be free to partake in his risky hobbies.  He probably misses biking a lot more than he's going to miss pretending to be okay with team orders.
• I think that Briatore's assessment of young talent misses the mark.  There is no longer a pipeline of 'stand out' young drivers, because number of skilled young drivers has really risen.  True, they may not have the skills of the 'greats', but they certainly can match some of the 'truly goods', racers like Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill, Mark Webber (sorry, I can't go back further for examples).  Racers who were either in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time for their talents to shine or be burried.
  
  Petrov, Kobiashi, Grosjean, Perez all show promise, there's just no room for them to prove it, not when they have to race in the shadows of Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel and Kimi.

[John S]

I can see what Flav is alluding to, most drivers leave F1 because they have to.
Mark is not in that position, far from it he could still have piloted the new era Red Bull.

Why is it that nearly all drivers who get dropped from good, middle and even bottom end teams always want to stay in F1?
I suggest it's because other forms of motorsport don't come close. Most of those dropped would jump at a no 2 slot anywhere on the F1 grid, indeed many cling on far too long.

Endurance sports car racing is a good choice but clearly doesn't have the profile, competition, or adrenaline burst that F1 has. LeMans racing has it's own set of greats and few of them have come from a really successful F1 career.

Of course Briatore helped create the problem Mark finds at Red Bull by running all his teams with clear 1 and 2 driver line-ups. I can't recall when, or even if, he promoted a number 2 to the top spot, but he continued swapping the no 2s after a year or so, sometimes earlier, so what really is Flav's beef about Mark not wanting to be no 2 and chucking it in? 

• I think that Briatore's assessment of young talent misses the mark.  There is no longer a pipeline of 'stand out' young drivers, because number of skilled young drivers has really risen.  True, they may not have the skills of the 'greats', but they certainly can match some of the 'truly goods', racers like Jacques Villeneuve, Damon Hill, Mark Webber (sorry, I can't go back further for examples).  Racers who were either in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time for their talents to shine or be burried.
  

I think he misses the mark entirely, F1 historically always had a lot of drivers moving into the formula for just a few races, or half a season, before most disappearing forever. Now because of teams insisting on full season sponsors there are less slots for driver try-outs. Turn over enough stones and something always turns up.   

Petrov, Kobiashi, Grosjean, Perez all show promise, there's just no room for them to prove it, not when they have to race in the shadows of Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel and Kimi.

Oh I wish that were true in Grojean's case Jeri. Knowing where the corners of your car are when you are racing seems like a more basic requirement for any driver, let alone an F1 pilot, or are you suggesting the long shadows from the big boys confuses poor old 'Wrecker Roman'.   
We've seen quite a few accident prone drivers starting their F1 careers and then going on to greatness, Jody Schechter and James Hunt to name two, but I'm pretty sure their shunts came from pushing the limits not lack of spatial awareness. 

[Scott]

Flavio always had conflicts of interest with his mouth in both troughs at the same time (paid as both team principal and driver manager).  Often his No. 2 drivers were under his own management.  He only brought them into the sport to try to get them drives at other F1 teams, and kept the best for himself.

[cosworth151]

Mark did well in sports cars before he came to F1. I think he will do well there again.

I agree with Jeri. Mark doesn't want to be a #2 driver. He's there to win. there's every reason to believe that Porsche will be a top team in LMP1.

i think F1 will miss Mark more than he will miss F1.

[lkjohnson1950]

I'm sure Mark will do very well. I think Porsche will find Audi and Toyota very tough to beat.