Red Bull only found out about Mark Webber's decision to leave on Thursday morning

Sebastian Vettel and Christian Horner were both left surprised by Mark Webber's decision to quit Red Bull at the end of the season for a new career racing sportscars for Porsche.

Webber's decision immediately opened speculation about a replacement, with Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and Toro Rosso youngsters Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo seen as the leading candidates. Ask who he would prefer, Vettel replied: "I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. Obviously we only found out this morning; we're not in a rush but it's not my call." Speaking earlier on Thursday, Raikkonen said he would have no problem partnering Vettel. In response, the latter said: "He probably answered the same with less words but I think we get along. It's difficult to have real friends but I've never had any issue with Kimi - I've never had an issue on the track with him. "I don't know about his situation in Lotus but I think we get along well with each other. Obviously, we've never been team-mates and I'm not deciding whether he will join the team or not. "I think it's always difficult to know how a relationship is going to be. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter who your team-mate is. When you want to win, you need to beat the rest; whether you have them in your own team or another, it shouldn't really matter." Vettel has, of course, clashed with Webber on more than one occasion - most notably in Turkey three years ago and also at this year's Malaysian GP - but he reckoned that the state of their relationship has been overplayed by the media. "I have enormous respect for him on the track but I think, off track, a lot of it has been hyped more than it should have, because there hasn't really been that much going on," he insisted. "If you look at other team pairings, I think there's worse couples than us in terms of mutual respect. So I don't think I've been in a bad position or he's been in a bad position. Obviously he's quite a bit older than me and maybe it's a different generation, you can argue. "As a fact, we're not best friends and probably never will be. It was reason enough for you to get excited in the past but it's not a reason for us to try and change at all cost." He added: "We've probably had enough talks about Malaysia. You can summarise that both of us weren't happy with what happened but I don't think these sorts of things change the world. "Equally, we had different opinions three years ago now in Turkey and we had a successful time after that." Don't miss the first two parts of our 'Closer to the Cockpit' series with Mark Webber and Martin Brundle during our British GP Qualifying and Race-Day shows this weekend.