Webber upped form with performance ’coach’ - Horner

Mark Webber enlisted some outside help to get him over the slump of 2011.

After narrowly losing the title to his teammate Sebastian Vettel in 2010, the Australian’s form nosedived last season as Vettel utterly dominated in the sister Red Bull.

But Webber, 35, is back with a bang in 2012, winning two grands prix so far compared to Vettel’s sole Bahrain victory and a new contract for 2013.

"Mark had a very difficult year in 2011," team boss Christian Horner told Bild newspaper, revealing the tall Australian is now working with a "coach".

Horner named the ’coach’ as Webber’s friend Bernie Shrosbree, who the winner of 9 grands prix met while he was a Renault test driver in 2001.

Back then, Shrosbree was Renault’s ’performance training’ chief.

"Seb found great momentum in 2011 and was unstoppable but it’s easy to forget that Mark was never that far behind," said David Coulthard after Webber’s British grand prix win.

"He was never being lapped," he wrote in the Telegraph. "Either way, he is in great form and right in the championship hunt."