LONDON — A lack of motivation is the main reason why Red Bull’s Mark Webber is quitting Formula 1 at the end of the current season.

The 37-year-old Australian, who will be replaced by Daniel Riccardio when he makes the switch to racing for Porsche in the World Endurance Championship next year, has spent 12 years in Formula 1.

But speaking ahead of this week’s Formula 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix on Sept 22, he admitted his passion for the sport has begun to dip.

“I’ve been on the edge with F1, motivation-wise, for the past couple of years,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Webber as saying in the F1 Racing magazine. “You have to be driven. You turn yourself around each winter and the fire in the belly is not quite what it was when you were 24.”

He added: “I remember hearing something about sportsmen and women years ago. They were saying that as long as they could keep their motivation, they would keep going.

“I could never work out what that meant. How could you lose your motivation? But questions keep coming to me more and more often that were never there in the past.

“It’s not about driving or racing, it’s about keeping my own F1 programme going for 11 months of the year. And it’s just got to the point where it’s like, well, I’ve achieved a lot of things.”

While Webber will remember the nine Grands Prix titles in his F1 career, as well as narrowly missing out on the world championship in 2010, he will not miss certain aspects of being a professional F1 driver, including the travelling and hotels.

“Travel and hotels...and probably the repetitive nature of the job. A bit of media. Lots and lots of small things that you’re happy to deal with when you’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” he said.

“But it does, in the end, force you to ask yourself the question: ‘Do I have to be here, doing this?’ And when Porsche came along, I could look myself in the eye and say: ‘Well, you know what, I probably don’t have to do some of those things any more.”

Webber also feels Ferrari’s acquisition of former world champion Kimi Raikkonen from Lotus is a “short term” gamble by the Italian outfit to win their first silverware since the 2008 Constructors’ Championship, before they make their move to prise triple world champion Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull in 2016.

Raikkonen is set to replace Brazilian Felipe Massa, and Webber believes the Finn will provide the push for Ferrari’s double world champion Fernando Alonso to step up his game.

“For lots of reasons Ferrari need to be winning again in Formula 1,” Webber told Sky Sports F1.

“It has to happen so this is the first step forward for them to get the team back in (title-winning form). Constructors’ is important, Ferrari winning that, and then the Drivers’ Championship as well. So those two things have got to come together.

“There are so many reasons why it’s a bit of a gamble to help Ferrari. Two years for probably both of them actually I think. And then what they do after that obviously [is] pick Seb up off the back of Red Bull and they keep moving from there.

“But it’s a very short-term aggressive statement from Ferrari to put the team at the front.”

Webber added: “He (Alonso) needs to be squeezed on Saturday afternoon to get the car further up the grid. That’s why the car is phenomenal at starts and got all those other strengths because they think there is inherent weakness obviously in qualifying.

“Fernando over one lap needs to be pushed and that will help him on Saturday afternoon with Kimi being there.” AGENCIES