Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has confirmed that Sebastian Vettel will be heading to Ferrari next season.
Horner informed media at Suzuka that the four-time world champion delivered the news of his departure from the Milton Keynes squad to Ferrari late last night.
“He'll be a Ferrari driver, absolutely,” Horner told reporters when asked about Vettel's plans for 2015.
“Obviously Ferrari made him a very attractive offer.
“There's the lure of Ferrari. A window has opened and he decided that the time is right.
“It's his choice. He's been around long enough to know his own mind.
“He's his own man and he makes his own decisions – we respect that.”
Vettel, who is due to officially announce his 2015 plans shortly, is now expected to join Kimi Raikkonen at the Maranello squad, with Fernando Alonso seemingly heading to McLaren.
Although Ferrari is yet to officially confirm that the two-time world champion will be leaving the team.
Meanwhile, Horner also revealed Red Bull did not speak to any other drivers before making the decision to promote Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat to Vettel's vacated seat.
“It has been our philosophy for several years now to back youth, to grow our own talent and that is exactly what we did with Sebastian,” Horner added.
“There were question marks when we signed him, and question marks when we signed Daniel Ricciardo, but we have demonstrated that it works.
“Daniel is a very exciting talent and it is an exciting new dawn for Red Bull Racing.”
Kvyat's promotions has now created a vacancy alongside 17-year-old Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso next year.
Having demonstrated an allegiance to promoting from within, Red Bull junior drivers Antonio Felix da Costa, Carlos Sainz jr and Alex Lynn are all likely to be in the frame to secure the seat.