Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber of Australia has announced that he will end his association with the Formula One team after the current season and will instead race events such as the Le Mans 24 Hours. The team had said he would be welcome to stay for 2014 but the Australian has decided to move his career in a different direction.

Source: Sky Sports

Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen is favourite to replace Webber at Red Bull or replaced by either of Toro Rosso's current drivers, Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne.

"Porsche has written racing history as a manufacturer and stands for outstanding performance and technology at the highest level," said Webber.

"I'm very much looking forward to this new challenge after my time in Formula 1. I can hardly wait to pilot one of the fastest sports cars in the world."

Having begun his F1 career with Minardi, Webber went on to compete for Jaguar and Red Bull over the following 12 years, twice finishing third in the driver standings and standing on the podium 36 times, winning 9 F1 Grands Prix from 205 starts and set pole position 11 times.

Racing for Porsche next season will not be his Le Mans debut. He previously raced for Mercedes in 1998 and 1999 but a mechanical problem ended his debut early in the race.