• Mark Webber Q&A

Broken records and sheep stations

Laurence Edmondson March 9, 2011

Fresh from his penutimate day of pre-season testing, Mark Webber faced the media at Barcelona to answer questions on the RB7's progress, his team-mate Vettel and race strategy in 2011

How was your day?
Yeah it was good, a bit of a shaky start, but after that we got some decent miles in this afternoon. The weather was the main concern, we had some drizzle here and there, but in the end we got some bloody good mileage in. Nothing much has changed since last week, tyre wise, track wise... we've seen that a lot this year that not much is changing week-to-week. The track was in good shape today for its first day, so I worked on a few things and we have absolutely truck loads of data to go through.

How comfortable are you with the way Red Bull's preparations are going?
I feel pretty good. You could always do with more time but I think we are ready to go and see where we are. You always learn more when you go racing, about your strengths and weaknesses and as a team. That comes from pace, reliability, pit stops, organisation, Saturdays and Sundays - the whole weekend needs be tested shortly and we'll go from there. We're only a few days away from that, so that's good.

Is there an upgrade coming still in the next few days?
You need to ring Adrian [Newey].

So we might see it anyway...
You might see it...

All the teams from the top to the bottom say that you are the favourites, do you agree?
I think that's from last year. I think it is pretty obvious that the team is very motivated and, organisation wise, we are in great shape. We're building on what we did last year so naturally people are aiming for what happened last year. I don't think there is a huge amount of evidence to go on from the last eight weeks to be honest, because today we saw everyone at a similar pace and Ferrari weren't here [on Tuesday]. McLaren aren't hanging around either. As I said, we need to go racing. I'll be able to tell you guys a lot more come Sunday or even Saturday in Melbourne. We'll get an idea of about 60% of it, but 40% will still have to be confirmed after the race. It's quite frustrating that I can't give you guys more of what is actually happening, but that's because there's such a big variation in tyre age and fuel loads that there is no one in the pit lane who can say exactly where they are.

But everybody is working through the same tests in the circumstances. You have a good car and you know it...
But we're not going to sit here and say that we are going to go and destroy the first race because it would be naive. There are a lot of people on a similar pace, don't worry about that.

So you're not sandbagging as many people have been suggesting around the paddock.
Certainly not. I'd love to be able to say that. There's not enough time to play games with yourself let alone other people.

What do you think are the main weaknesses of the RB7?
The weaknesses of the car ... again we will learn more about this when we go racing. We have some things we are working on, but it's like being a boxer - I'm not going to tell you what we're not good at. We are going to work on those over the next few weeks.

Have you already got an idea of how the weekends are going to unfold? Will there be less running in free practice due to tyre degradation? Will it be important to go for pole position or will it be more important to make sure you have the right tyre for the race?
I think the FIA have come out and said they are going to look at the tyre allocations over the course of the weekend, maybe not for Melbourne but for the future. We've got a very fine balance, as you know, with tyre allocation. Even in the past we didn't do a huge amount of mileage and that was due to engines, and maybe in this case we will have to look at tyre consumption, particularly in qualifying and the race. Last year we knew qualifying was a massive thing and this year, although I don't want the headlines to be "Qualifying is less important", I think it is. Last year it was so incredibly important because it was one stop and then bang we go back out. This year I'm pretty sure that we will be having more pits stops and qualifying is always important - although probably a bit less so than we've had in the past.

Do you feel your race chances are more in the hands of the strategic people in the team than they ever have been before?
Strategy has always played a role. But yes there are a lot more opportunities to screw things up, unquestionably. But actually, in a bizarre sort of way, if you had a dry grand prix here tomorrow there wouldn't be many surprises. We know what's probably going to come our way and we just have to get ready for that. It's just in relation to what everybody else does that your strategy might be a surprise. But there should be no surprises for what we might expect in a grand prix.

In regards to your relationship with your team-mate [Sebastian Vettel], do you think things can improve after what happened last year?
I think that unquestionably we learnt a lot about each other last year. It was a sensational year for the team and both us personally. Of course I would have liked a slightly different result, but that's sport, that's what competing is all about. At the end of the day there can only be one champion and Lewis, Fernando and myself - we missed it. This year we don't even know if we've got the chance to go for those kind of results again and that already changes things. If you don't, then of course there is less tension. But last year, like you say, was quite an unique situation. It's not often that you get two team-mates going into the last few races in contention for the world title, although of course I hope that happens again. But it's a completely broken record now. People keep talking about it, but it's a broken record... I hope when I'm 70 people aren't still asking me if I love Sebastian.

Do you think it is possible to qualify on the softer tyre, considering the degradation and how quickly you will have to pit in the race?
It depends on the speed difference between the compounds. If you want to go for a more conservative tyre for qualifying then you have to take a two or three-row penalty on the grid compared to the other compound and you have to ask is it worth it or is it not? We will have to look at what the tyres are offering at each venue in terms of pace difference for your grid position and also work out how easy it is to penetrate back through the field. If you go with either of those routes then there are going to be elements of overtaking.

That might be one of the biggest tactical challenges this year?
One of them. But we saw in Canada last year that I qualified on the hard tyre and in the end it worked out well for the guys on the softs because the midfield guys were not there to hold them up. I think it will become pretty predictable in the end in terms of how you go about that particular decision - I'm not saying that the racing will be predictable, but that particular decision will be.

Pirelli are predicting three pit stops, do you think that's accurate?
You can do one stop if you want, but you're going to have a long race. Three stops is fine, but it depends if you want to catch the plane.

You only have one day left in the car now before Australia, what little questions do you need to answer from the car and from yourself?
I'm chipping away on my environment in the cockpit to make myself more comfortable. I am comfortable, I could do a race tomorrow if I wanted and I did 140 laps in a day last week, but there are still a few things I'm working away on there. We don't test during the year so it's nice not having to muck around with these things on Fridays, so I've got a few small things to check there. I won't be surprised if we do some long runs, concentrating on the tyres and maybe a race simulation like we did last week. So more race work because, as we say in Australian slang, that's where the sheep stations are handed out - that means the big prizes by the way. So I need to work more on that.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

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