• First Barcelona Test, Day Three

Webber satisfied with first race simulation

ESPN Staff
February 21, 2013 « Mercedes closer to top teams - Rosberg | 'I don't feel like I've had enough laps' - Button »
Mark Webber: "I'd say we could do better with another attempt" © Sutton Images
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Mark Webber said there was room for improvement after his first race simulation in the Red Bull RB9 at Barcelona on Thursday, but on the whole was happy with his first day back in the car since Jerez.

Webber and Red Bull resisted the temptation to set quick laps on the soft tyres and after some set-up work in the morning set about a race simulation in the afternoon. The end of the run was interrupted by a red flag, but Webber said it was good to put some extra mileage on the RB9.

"Yeah, it was pretty good, we're learning plenty but overall a pretty positive day for us," he said. "We'd certainly like to have a bit more mileage tomorrow but that looks like it isn't going to happen, it looks like it will be wet, but overall I think the car ran pretty smoothly.

"[There were] a few little things here and there but in general, again, a huge amount of data for us to go through and it was not a bad race sim. I'd say we could do better with another attempt, but that's the way it is and it's the same for everybody, so a positive day for us."

He said Red Bull had several stages of improvements planned over the next test and ahead of Melbourne.

Well, like we've always said this is race 21 from last year so we just keep moving along with the car. In terms of from Jerez to here, yeah, it's a different track all together... the tyres are behaving very differently to Jerez and we will have to keep pushing in terms of development.

"We had some stuff here, we'll have to have some more stuff next week and we'll have to have some more stuff for Melbourne. That's the way it is, that's the way Formula One is... we have to keep focussing on ourselves, keep improving the car and our job is not to make the development of the car slower, our job is to make the development of the car quicker, so that's what we'll try and do in the coming weeks and the coming races."

He added that it was still too early to get a clear reading of the pecking order.

"Absolutely no idea. I think that there's a few quick cars out there, I think we're going okay but certainly it's so hard to read in testing, it's impossible especially with the tyres going off as much as they are. You're losing four or five seconds over the course of a stint like we do with the Pirellis and also it's more difficult to read who's doing what, so if you guys can't guess what's happening, we don't have any idea either."

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