Mark Webber is considering walking away from Formula One in 2012 if he wins the world championship this season.
The Red Bull driver holds a four-point lead in the drivers' championship from Lewis Hamilton with just seven races remaining.
Just 20 points separate Webber from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in fifth, but that has not stopped the 33-year-old Australian from considering a life after F1 should he take out the championship.
Webber is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2011, and says winning the championship before then may lessen his desire for professional racing.
"I cannot guarantee that my head will be in the same place in 2012," Webber told Brazil's Esporte Espetacular.
"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."
Webber, who burst onto the racing scene with Minardi in 2002, says one of his post-racing 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," he said.
"Maybe I will do a little mountain climbing, who knows."
"Definitely [I will do] some more sporting challenges before I get too old and return to Australia to drink red wine."
Practice for this week's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps begins on Friday.