Apart from keeping a winning car-driver combination together, Sebastian Vettel’s new contract serves two other purposes.
That is the claim of Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who has secured the new world champion through 2014 but also admitted that Vettel, 23, can switch to a rival team if his car is not up to scratch.
By signing Vettel beyond his existing 2011 contract, however, the Austrian billionaire said he hopes there are two effects.
"First, so that he can feel secure at least for a while, but also to put to an end the ’hunt’ of the other teams that often came close to the boundary of reasonableness," Mateschitz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
He also insisted that the "pressure" of carrying the number 1 in 2011 will not faze F1’s youngest ever reigning champion.
"For the very best sportsmen, and among them is Vettel, pressure is a stimulant rather than something that pushes you to defeat," said Mateschitz.