Mark Webber cannot guarantee he will still be on the formula one grid in 2012 — especially if he wins the world championship before then.

The sport’s current championship leader, and with his four victories the winningest driver so far in 2010, has signed a new deal to stay with Red Bull next year.

But he told Brazil’s weekly Esporte Espetacular programme: “I cannot guarantee that my head will be in the same place in 2012.

“For sure I want to go for the championship.  I know that it changes people’s lives, changes the person and I want to know how it feels,” said the 33-year-old Australian.

But Webber also said one of his other goals is to be a mentor to young people who “expect little from their life”.

“I want them to realise that they can dream higher and achieve.  Maybe I will do a little mountain climbing, who knows.

“Definitely (I will do) some more sporting challenges,” he explained, “before I get too old and return to Australia to drink red wine.”