Jun 24, 2010

Exclusive interview - Red Bull’s Mark Webber

Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull Racing.  Formula One World Championship, Rd 8, Canadian Grand Prix, Practice Day,  Montreal, Canada, Friday, 11 June 2010

Mark Webber is a title contender - and he’s got there the hard way. After his pre-season injuries last year, few had expected him to bounce back so forcefully in 2010. But there he is, taking advantage of what has generally been the fastest machine on the grid, even if Montreal showed that the RB6 is perhaps not a car for all tracks. This weekend he plans to take the fight back to McLaren on the streets of Valencia…

Q: Mark, last year your team mate Sebastian Vettel was fighting for the championship while you were struggling. This season you’ve developed into a serious title contender, staying ahead in the standings. What has changed?
Mark Webber:
I don’t know really. I tried to give my best every year - and so far this season is turning out pretty well for me. I’ve been fast - that helps - and it is nice that some races have been straightforward and I’ve been able to win - also due to hard work. True, with the same amount of work and passion other races have not been that successful, but overall, yeah, it’s been a pretty good go so far. In 2009 I was never really in the situation to have such dominant weekends like that, so this year I feel much more consistent and faster at more venues. I don’t know why this is the case, but it is a nice problem to have.

Q: How important was it having had proper preparation for the season, unlike last year?
MW:
Last year it was a mentally tough season for me because I had some surgery in between races and that didn’t help a lot. I wasn’t so much in pain - the conditions weren’t so bad - but mentally it was quite tough. On top of that I didn’t have an off-season because I broke my leg in November and had to work to recover. So January and February 2009 were the toughest months of my life actually, to get ready for the season - to get ready mentally. It was very rewarding to get back in the car, but the season went on and on. It was a long year! This year in between races - if I want to - I can do different things and don’t have to plan around medical stuff.

Q: Last year sometimes it seemed you had problems with the tyres. This year appears quite the opposite: you seem to be using them well - arguably better than Sebastian…
MW:
I don’t know too much about that. I haven’t been a big fan of high-fuel qualifying - this year I like qualifying better. This might sound like a small thing, but it can make a difference. Tyres might have a little to do with that, but in the end it’s a driver’s job to cope with this. And nowadays there is a change in rules almost every week and a driver needs to get used to these changes. It is the challenge of the drivers to get used to new regulations each year. This is how it is.

Q: Would you say that it is still an advantage for you that you are older and have much more experience than Sebastian?
MW:
Well, experience is always something that you get when you get older. You can’t buy it or go into a shop and grab it - and you cannot work harder to get more experience - it just comes with time. Sure it’s a difference if someone has done 200 Grands Prix or if someone is coming from GP2. It’s a completely different situation. We drivers have to learn the ropes along the way. Whether experience helps me, who knows? At least it doesn’t do you any harm.

Q: How would you rate your chances of becoming the next Australian Formula One champion?
MW:
I would say: reasonable. I have a chance, no question about it, but there is still a long way to go and we have to see how the next couple of races go. It is way too early to start predicting who is hot and who is not for the title. There are several drivers who could pull it off.

Q: Who do you see as your main opponent?
MW:
The five or six guys who make up the front places of the standings. They are all in my considerations.

Q: In the situation Red Bull are in, wouldn’t it be helpful to have a clear structure like Michael Schumacher had with Ferrari?
MW:
Those days are over. You cannot run a business like this anymore. I don’t think that the fans would accept it and I don’t think that the people in the team would do it. It was very, very unusual what happened with Michael and Rubens (Barrichello) to be honest. There obviously was an agreement in place with Rubens. But think back to Austria- did we like that? What happened there was ridiculous. No, as I said, those days are gone.

Q: When you look at a photo of your crash with Sebastian in Turkey, what caption would you give that photo?
MW:
Ah, that is an easy one: ‘At this point think of Milton Keynes!’ It was the whole team that suffered.

Q: What was your first thought after the collision?
MW:
Think of the team. Jesus, we are hitting each other - that cannot be positive for the team. But of course you think about yourself pretty fast after that…

Q: The RB6 has generally been the fastest car on the grid - at six out of eight races a Red Bull driver has been on pole - and yet you’re leading neither the drivers’ nor constructors’ championship. What is the reason for that? It cannot just be bad luck…
MW:
You could say that some reliability issues have cost us some points, for sure. But if you look it from another angle you could say that I am the only driver who scored points in every race. Is this the key for winning the championship? There are many points that add to the title win. One of them is winning races - you cannot say, ‘hey, I’ll just take fourth or fifth places’ - that will not do.

Q: Do you think that McLaren have now closed the gap?
MW:
They have done pretty good in the last races, but to be honest it was not a huge surprise for us to see them shine in the races they won. We expected that. But we also have been very satisfied with our pace in Montreal - a track not too much to our liking. Sure they had a nice momentum with finishing Turkey and Montreal one-two, but we know - and they know - that they are not going to finish first and second at every race.

Q: Do you think that Montreal was the worst track for Red Bull?
MW:
Probably one of them. Put it like this: McLaren would not want to go to Monte Carlo every week; Ferrari probably don’t want to go to Turkey again - ever - because it didn’t work for them; and for us Montreal’s a bit that way.

Q: You recently signed for another year with Red Bull Racing. Why only one year?
MW:
This was heavily driven by me and my management, because I am taking it each year as it comes. This doesn’t mean that I am wasting one thought on finishing my career after that year. If people think that a one-year contract will put pressure on me, forget it.


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Europe Preview - who’ll seize mid-season advantage?

(L  to R): Karun Chandhok (IND) Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT) with team mate  Bruno Senna (BRA) Hispania Racing F1 Team (HRT) at the Ciutat de les  Arts i les Ci?ncies. Formula One World Championship, Rd 9, European  Grand Prix, Preparations, Valencia Spain, Thursday, 24 June 2010

This weekend’s European Grand Prix marks the notional halfway point of the 2010 world championship title fight, and sees a whole load of teams bringing updates to try to make ground on their rivals.

Local hero Fernando Alonso and team mate Felipe Massa are pinning their hopes on a big aerodynamic upgrade to the Ferrari F10, with which the Spaniard was a threatening third recently in Canada. McLaren have more new bits for their MP4-25, the winner of the last two races in the hands of Lewis Hamilton.

Red Bull, Mercedes, Force India and Williams all have their F-ducts, though not all of them will race them. That depends on their performance in practice. “We will evaluate it on Friday and then make a decision as to whether we race with it or not," the Red Bull team says, also adding that despite his gearbox problem in Canada Sebastian Vettel is unlikely to need a replacement this weekend which would incur a grid penalty.

Williams say the same thing about their F-duct, Mercedes ditto. A year ago Michael Schumacher had planned to race here for Ferrari; now he’ll be here with an updated Mercedes looking for a big improvement on his form in Montreal.

For all that, McLaren start favourite after their form in Canada. “I’m really looking forward to racing in Valencia,” says points leader Lewis Hamilton, who is looking for a hat trick. “I had a great, attacking race there last year - but I’ve finished second for the past two seasons, so I feel like I have some unfinished business!

“I also think it’s good for the championship to have a variety of circuits - we’ve just come from a fast, flowing road course in Canada, to a tight street track in Valencia. And, next month, we’ll be at Silverstone. As a driver, that sort of variety makes the racing exciting and unpredictable, which is all you can really ask for.

“The last few Grands Prix have had some fantastic racing - it would be great for all the Spanish fans if we can have a great race here too. It’s not a circuit where we’ve seen too much passing in the past, but I think this year could be different - the grid is so tight, there were battles all through the field in Montreal last week, so I think we could have a close and exciting race this year.”

Paul di Resta will be back in action for Force India on Friday morning, taking over Adrian Sutil’s VJM03 now that the team have sorted out their F-duct.

It’ll also be a very important weekend for Lotus Racing as they celebrate the marque’s 500th Grand Prix, and Colin Chapman’s son Clive will be on hand together with the first Lotus single-seater, the Type 12 from 1956, and the latest, a brand new T127 chassis that Jarno Trulli will drive.

“Celebrating the 500th race will be an absolute honour, and will obviously be very special,” says team principal Tony Fernandes, “but we’re only nine races of the whole Lotus story. Really, this weekend is all about celebrating Colin Chapman’s history, and thanking Clive, his mother Hazel, and all the people that have helped shape the Lotus legend.

“I’m thrilled that some of the people that were part of the original story are with us today, and I’m proud we’ve been able to take the total number of races Lotus has taken part in to 500 and beyond - hopefully we’ll be celebrating 1,000 races one day, and can look back on a legacy that pays true homage to that we’re celebrating this weekend - the legacy of Colin Chapman, his family, his cars and his team.”

It is also a key weekend for HRT who race at home for the second time this year.

The 5.419 kilometre street course is located down in the city’s port area and is not dissimilar to the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. It’s a relatively high-speed track with long 300 km/h straights and 25 tight corners, so it’s another place where getting the compromise of straight-line speed versus downforce is a real challenge for the engineers. And since it isn’t a permanent circuit, you can expect track evolution to play a similarly key role to the one it played in Canada.

Bridgestone will again bring their medium and super-soft compounds and Hirohide Hamashima, director of motorsport tyre development, says: “From a riverside street course in Canada we now head to a seaside street course in Europe. In common with the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Valencia has several high-speed sections, but more corners. The layout and track surface is more aggressive to the tyres than in Montreal so we do not expect the same challenge for teams to get maximum performance from the medium and super soft compounds. This year’s race takes place in June, as opposed to the late August date of the first two Grands Prix here, but we don’t believe the date change will present us with radically different weather.”


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Jun 1, 2010

Webber: Red Bull can bounce back

Mark Webber (AUS) Red Bull Racing. Formula One World Championship,  Rd 7, Turkish Grand Prix, Race, Istanbul Park, Turkey, Sunday, 30 May  2010

You could have cut the atmosphere at Red Bull with a knife following the collision between the team’s drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, during Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix. But Webber, who lost out on the chance to clinch a third consecutive victory because of the incident, is certain the team will bounce back and put on a united front as they look ahead to the rest of the season.

The Australian eventually finished the Istanbul Park race in third, behind the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, after being forced to pit for a new nose for his RB6. Vettel, who was running in second when he had an opportunity to overtake his team mate, span into retirement.

“It’s a real shame for the team because we lost a good opportunity to win the race,” explained Webber in a video posted on Red Bull’s official website. “Obviously one of us could have won it. But this is sport and it can happen. If you look back, you of course want to handle things a lot more differently, and that it is something we can learn as a team. We are in unchartered waters. Both of us were leading the championship and both of us were at the front. The team - collectively with the drivers - all of us have to learn how to deal with these situations maybe better in the future."

“People have to remember that we are still a very young team. To take McLaren on week in, week out is not an easy task, but one that Red Bull are hungry for. We have proven that we will fight them hard. So it is a feather in our cap on one side, but also on the other side we are still learning.

"And unfortunately in Turkey we learned in a way which wasn't the best way. You know, teams like Ferrari and McLaren have had these days. They know how tough it can be when you have some adversity. We need to bounce back and be united as a team, and keep going."

And despite the disappointment, Webber is still leading the drivers’ championship, with 93 points to Button’s 88, and the 33 year-old is feeling positive about his chances over the forthcoming Grands Prix.

"I like the car, the team have been great and are doing a good job with the car,” he concluded. “I have had a few good races at the last few events. But in general I will just keep doing my best - that is all I can do. I give 100 per cent for myself because that is what it is about at this level.

“You want to get the absolute maximum out of every session, every single race. So far it has been going really, really well. Obviously (the Turkish race) was a bit of a speed hump in our programme. We've all had tougher days, I've certainly had tougher days in the past, so I will bounce back from this and, you know, we’ll press on."


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