Q & A with Mark Webber

Mark Webber: Fine actually. I've settled in really quickly. I went to the team a few times right after the season finished, and the mechanics working on the car are the same pretty much as when I was there in the past. A few have changed positions in terms of some of the soldiers on the floor, but there are more people now and obviously engineering wise I have had to get to know a few different people. And management wise it is different altogether.

Q. How are you getting on with DC?

MW: Fine, yeah. I think that David and I had had a relationship anyway in terms of the GPDA situation, so I had probably spoken to him more than many other drivers. Then when you become teammates you pretty much know how he is as a person and character. So fine, yeah.

Q. Have you had much of a read on the car yet?

MW: I think the car feels good, to be honest. But there are still a lot of things that we have got to get on top of. As you know the car has done 60km in its whole life, so it is very, very early. And I would absolutely love to be able to give you an answer and say, 'X, Y and Z'. But we have not enough experience with this car yet. But my first impressions are that it will be good.

Q. What about your physical preparation? Have you worked harder or differently?

MW: I would say I am quite motivated to get fit, which in the last few years was there but maybe not as intense as in the last few months - which is good for me. It shows my general excitement for the whole campaign really. I took a few weeks off after the Tasmania Challenge because I was a bit smashed up after that physically. I feel absolutely fine now.

Q. Adrian is renowned for building quite tight cars and you are a tall driver. Do you fit in it okay?

MW: It could be a lot worse, but we are looking at making it a bit nicer. But in terms of priorities it is there on the list, but it is not right at the top. But come Melbourne I will be more comfortable in it.

Q. Are you able to make any comparisons between the rev-limited Ferrari of last winter and the Renault engine?

MW: It is not important, mate. It doesn't matter as we are in a whole new situation now. I think clearly both those engines went for the world championship and they were both strong engines, but unfortunately one failed a few more times than the other and that was quite important for the outcome.

Q. When you ran last year's Ferrari, how did it compare with last year's Cosworth?

MW: Cosworth did a good job with the engine, there is no doubt about it. I always believed it was a good engine having the feeling of racing other people so yes, as I said to them many times, they can be proud of what they did with the facilities they had and what they achieved was fantastic.

Q. So were you disappointed with the Ferrari?

MW: Oh no. We were finishing the contract with Ferrari so I don't think it was a Michael Schumacher piece we had in Barcelona before Christmas. It was an engine to get us around.

Q. The less than happy Williams time is behind you. Do you feel it is a whole new beginning now?

MW: Yes. I am refreshed, and different at home apparently! I am excited. The feeling in the team it is good, it is healthy, and there is a lot of just general excitement. Everyone has got a spring in their step, which is good. It is an exciting, young team - obviously it has been through the Jackie Stewart and Jaguar days, but a lot of the ingredients are still young and that is bloody exciting.

We are going up against big manufacturers, but we want to get amongst those guys. That is what we are here for, to make a difference. It is not about tooling around and not being competitive - we want to be competitive this year.

Q. So just how desperate were things with Williams?

MW: Mate, we have gone around, upside down, inside out with the whole Williams thing. I am not there any more, I am with Red Bull. It was tough though mate. It was tough for everyone.

Q. Is this a crucial year for you?

MW: If I get smashed this year it is not nice. If I do really, really well then great. But every year is the same pretty much. Last year I proved I can still do the business but I got six or seven points.

Williams wanted to keep me, and Red Bull wanted me, so there were a few teams out there that still liked what I did. We knew we lost a lot of opportunities last year, and I know in my own mind that there were a lot of things last year that I did that I can be satisfied with. But it is a fresh change this year.

Q. The knowledge of the Bridgestone tyres you had last year, how much of an advantage has that been for this season?

MW: What it has been, for me, was that actually this time last year at Williams when we went from Michelin to Bridgestone, we were on that older type of casing for two months before they designed some sort of Michelin-ish direction. That is what they took to the fight for Williams and Toyota, although Ferrari early on didn't commit to that philosophy.

So my experience for when we first went from Michelin to Bridgestone and what we learnt there, was more than what I gained during the season. So most of my intelligence that I can carry here was gained in those two months, not the last nine months.

Q. Everybody has a right to expect fireworks in Melbourne because of the Renault engine, the great designer behind you. Are you in a better shape for that race than at anytime in your career?

MW: Yeah, you would probably think so. But sometimes I went there, even last year, and we thought we had a car that wasn't expected to do much and we ended up qualifying sixth and running third. So it is a very, very difficult race to predict. But as I say, it is like boxers, everyone is talking it up like you cannot believe and it looks like we are going to have 22 drivers on the podium. It is not going to happen.

We need to see what happens in the next five weeks but if you look at the field, in terms of how many teams are going to be stepping up, I think it is going to be harder for Ferrari and Renault to actually, not get an advantage, but to get stronger. It is clearly time for McLaren for launch into them, and then there are teams like Honda, BMW and us who are the teams who can encroach onto the back of it.

Q. As a driver, how do you feel about the new regulations?

MW: I think generally it is not too bad, the general levelling of the control tyre. That is a huge, huge deal. Even just talking about Michelins, we had five different types of Michelin up and down the pitlane. So the purist says that the fight for perfection should be on all fronts and you would want to have some of that still there, because Michelin and Bridgestone just took each other to the nth degree.

What they did was unbelievable. That's gone now, absolutely over. But we get a chance, and you know we have a different situation because it is a lot more level on the tyre front.

And on the engines, obviously the weakest to the strongest engine is probably the tightest it's ever been. You would have to ask an engine specialist, but I think it could be.

Q. David has been a little bit critical of the tyre rule that forces teams to run different compounds in the race. He thinks it will be too predictable. What do you think?

MW: It is an absolute no brainer that you want to use the worst compound for the shortest possible time in the race. It is a bit strange that we have to use both compounds in the race. But it is absolutely not important what the drivers say about that.

Q. Looking at the broader picture, do Red Bull have the tools they need to be successful in the long run?

MW: The way F1 is going, I believe they do. Yes. With the way things are tightening up. If it was still open slather and the old 2004, 2005 and 2006 rules, it might take them longer. But with the way things are getting capped on, there are some ceilings being put in certain key areas of performance, they will have in the future a chance.

Q. What will change in F1 now that Michael Schumacher has gone?

MW: I think that clearly Michael has averaged a lot of wins every year, so that has gone. It is going to be spread out across a few more people and like I said before about so many different people being on the podium, I think it will happen this year.

Michael was powerful for the sport. The Schumacher name was big, there is no question about that, but we all know that it went through a period where it was almost too strong for the sport in terms of Ferrari - and that level it got to with Michael cruising around and having cigars every Sunday.

It was not good for the sport, and that hurt a lot of us in this room. But if it is Tiger Woods, do you make him tee off further back because that is the situation Ferrari got themselves in? The argument at the time was always how long can these guys go on for without having any competition?

The last few seasons, Fernando proved that he is the man. Alonso is the double world champion and he is the man at the moment. And he took everything to Michael, and did a superb job against him. And no one has done that. No one.

We never saw what would have happened with Senna, but no one has done what Fernando did to Michael in terms of those last few years of being a consistent threat. It is an absolute credit to him. Mika (Hakkinen), probably, but I think he had not quicker cars but not as level a playing field as Fernando had.

F1 will go on. We have got new characters coming through. I am totally up for youngsters coming in, they are all world champions every year they come in, as we know. Nico was a world champion for a few races last year, and it is great that Heikki is here and it is great that Lewis is here.

I hope that I am in the middle of my F1 career. Being 30, I hope I have got four or five years left but youngsters are important - as we know Michael could not race until he was 60.

But it is odd having him (Schumacher) at the tests, really odd. It is like having your ex-girlfriend there. Kimi must go, what the? It must feel so strange to have the teacher's pet standing above you while you are trying to get on with your own new programme. Suffocation or what?

Q. What would you be happy with at the end of the year?

MW: Definitely I want to have my best season. I have never finished really high up in the drivers' championship, but I want to make a good step in the drivers' championship for myself. And in turn, that will help the team in the constructors'.

I can't control what David does, but hopefully if we are doing the same sort of thing give or take a bit, then hopefully constructors' wise we can do well. That will be good for the guys, but personally for myself I want to capitalise on a lot of those retirements that have happened in the past and put those into something good. I hope we can be in there a bit more.

Q. What do you think about the new complex of corners here?

MW: It is very slippery, as we saw with the resurfacing of the track a few years ago. The drivers didn't see anything of it until basically the trucks were turning up at the track. And the design was done. It is always a balance though.

The last few corners were very quick, brilliant if everything was staying on the car, but if you have a failure then you are going in hard. It is a big shunt. I thought it was also done a bit for the motorbikes, but from what I have been told they are going to use the old track. The first (revised) corner is not bad, but the chicane is a deliberate speed smasher.

Q. Will it help overtaking?

MW: No. Turn One is not that wide anyway. I don't think it will help overtaking. It is not like a hairpin off the last corner, we are still in fifth through the last corner.

Q. Coulthard is 35, Michael raced until he was 38. You have a long time left, but do you feel in a way that it is a now or never clock ticking for you?

MW: Now or never? Yeah, it is an important year but I am still here. People obviously respect what has happened since I've been in F1. You look at photos sometimes, of the roller coasters that some drivers have been through. Whether it is Fisi at Jordan and he came back, although he hasn't done what he wanted at Renault.

There are only so many sheep that can drive these things. I have done very well compared to some of the guys that I have had on the other side of the garage, so I have a career in this sport. And I believe I can have a strong year this year.

But I am not a guy who will drive around for 12th or 14th for year after year. I will not do that, so it is an important year yeah. I want a step forward for myself and with the whole situation. We need to do that. It is important to be able to compete, that is why sometimes I enter fitness and adventure races so I can.

Q. How do you see your relationship with DC shaping up?

MW: Yeah, there is always comparisons because that is the way it is nowadays in motorsport. They look at how the other car is. I think I will be okay.

Q. What about Adrian Newey?

MW: Clearly a very, very intelligent guy and massive experience in terms of F1 cars as such from the whole design point of view. He is clever, there's no doubt about it. He is impressive. And he is putting the hours in. He is excited as well. I hope we can have a good year with him.