Webber hopes not to regret car issues

With Red Bull's rivals having made performance gains to close down the RB6's advantage over recent races, Webber is well aware of how many more points his team could have had if it had maximised opportunities in the first races this year.

"That's grand prix racing," said Webber in Valencia. "We elected to run the car when we did in testing because that is the decision we made.

"The car was very, very fast. We could have done a bit more reliability work and you may say the car would not have been so fast, but it is a long, long season. Will those extra three days of testing have made a difference by Abu Dhabi? Well, hopefully not.

"Everyone has had some pretty decent hiccups along the way. McLaren have had a few pitstop problems and Ferrari have had their problems. We've had our problems too, so no one has had a faultless season at all, and that is going to happen when there is no testing going on.

"There is a solid fight going on towards the front and, when you are trying to develop the car in-season without any testing, you might have some niggles along the way - whether it is with an F-duct, whether it is with an exhaust, or different types of mechanical bits you might try.

"What has happened has happened. We know we could have done things better, but so do a lot of other people. We are still in an amazing position in both championships, fantastic, and you would certainly take that over a lot of other positions if you were offered where you might be. There is such a long way to go."

Although Red Bull Racing is heading into the Valencia event off the back of seeing McLaren having taken 1-2 finishes in Turkey and Canada, Webber does not see any reason why his team needs to be too worried.

He thinks the ultimate performance of his outfit remains strong - and that there will still be plenty of grands prix where the RB6 will stretch its legs.

"Turkey and Canada were different events," he said. "Turkey we know we could have got a strong result there. McLaren we know were strong, particularly the first part of the GP, and we were the only two teams in that event, Ferrari weren't there.

"Ferrari turned up in Montreal, and we've been pretty quick everywhere, so there has been ebbing and flowing of performance gaps.

"We would be naive to panic off the back of Turkey and Canada to say there is a real trend going on. It is close and some venues will nip and tuck the other way - like Barcelona and Monaco, which was a bit of a surprise as we thought McLaren would be very strong in Monaco but they weren't.

"It has been interesting how the tracks have been very sensitive to certain cars."

When asked what he felt his chances were of winning the world title, Webber said: "Pretty good, I would say. We are in the hunt at the moment. I would say my chances aren't poor - they are a lot better than a lot of other people's."