Q & A with Vettel and Horner

Rather than waiting, we thought we should confirm what we already knew and to do it at Sebastian's home race at Hockenheim this weekend was an easy decision to make.

Q. How do you feel about your move for next year?

Sebastian Vettel: You can imagine I'm very pleased and I'm very looking forward to next year. It's a step up - it has always been my target and obviously it's a pleasure. I've been working with Red Bull for a very long time - since 2000 when I was go-karting - I could never imagine to race in F1. At that time they didn't have an F1 team. At some point they had two and it was a dream to race for them. And obviously to drive for Red Bull Racing next year is another dream come true.

Obviously we can see things are very close, so we see guys working for the other team. Then obviously you're talking to each other. As Christian said, after David said he's going to retire at the end of the season obviously we start to talk. Roughly around the Canadian Grand Prix we started talking about that for 2009. Very quickly it was clear - obviously for me I was very pleased there was a green light for next year.

Q. Christian, were there any other drivers in the running for this seat?

CH: Obviously our objective was always to have the best two drivers in the car. In Sebastian we've got a driver who has proved his potential in the races he has done. For us it was a very easy decision to take.

There are obviously other drivers who showed interest. But at the end of the day Sebastian has been a part of the Red Bull family for several years now, all the way through karting and the lower formulas and we've followed his progress with great interest.

He's here very much on merit. For us here, Mark and Sebastian in 2009 we've got one of the strongest driver line-ups in F1. The team's obviously making good progress and for us it's important to have a drive line-up for the future as well. Sebastian is a driver who will continue to develop, continue to evolve and I think that we can give him the right environment to realise his full potential.

Q. When does he actually become a Red Bull Racing driver?

CH: Sebastian will start testing with us I would think after the end of the season. Obviously his full focus is with Toro Rosso for the time being. Our race drivers have got a job to do. He's well-known to the team, he's already tested for us in Barcelona earlier this year and he left a very good impression with all the engineers and the whole team during that test and obviously because of the relationship between the two teams with the same parent we've followed his progress very keenly over the last few months. When David announced his retirement, Sebastian was an obvious choice.

Q. Sebastian, how do you see the rest of the season going with STR? What are your aims?

SV: The target is clear. You can see I'm still a Toro Rosso driver and we have nine races left - it's just half time. We got our new car just a couple of races ago and I think you could see that it's going in the right direction. We seem to get stronger and stronger so my main focus is on the remainder of this season. I've always done things step by step and I'm not going to change it in the future. My main focus is now on the 2008 season. Then comes Winter and we will start to prepare for the new season.

Q. How long is the contract?

CH: Contracts between the drivers and the team are always confidential. All we're going to confirm is that Sebastian is going to be with us for 2009. We obviously have relevant options beyond that.

Q. Did Sebastian have any other teams in mind?

SV: Obviously, as I said for a very long time I've been part of the Red Bull family. I think that I've shown potential if you look at the development of the results in the last couple of years. My target is clear, I want to progress, to move forward, and I think I have the opportunity here so there was no doubt.

Q. Who will replace Sebastian at Toro Rosso?

CH: That's very much a question for Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso have done a great job for Sebastian and provided us with a very talented young driver that's been able to demosntrate his potential in the Toro Rosso team. Any decision for Red Bull drivers in 2009 is very much down to Franz Tost and Gerhard Berger.

Q. Why did you make this decision now rather than wait for the driver market to settle down?

CH: The driver market, there's one driver that potentially is key to that market and that driver is Fernando Alonso. Fernando for us, the terms that he was potentially looking for would never have been an option and to be honest was one we didn't look particularly hard at. In Sebastian we've got one for the future.

We're a young team at Red Bull Racing as a product of the young driver programme Sebastian has demonstrated he has all the attributes to achieve what we believe the team can achieve in teh future. So we decided why delay the inevitable? Here at Sebastian's home race was obvious timing to annouce the second driver.

So it gives both Red Bull Racing clarity in terms of what it's driver line up will be, in terms of how we develop the car going forward and also gives Toro Rosso time to evaluate their options for 2009.