Webber stays positive despite injury

Rather than waste any time ruing his misfortune at suffering an injury ahead of what could be his best season in F1, Webber says he has stayed upbeat about the hurdles he has had to overcome in recent months.

And ahead of his return to the F1 cockpit at Jerez in Spain on Wednesday, Webber can see no reason to feel down about what has happened.

"I asked the question when I had the shunt - why did it have to happen to me?" explained Webber at the launch of the RB5 at Jerez in Spain on Monday.

"But I wasn't thinking that I was unlucky because I was going to have an amazing season this year. It's just another hurdle in my life to get over.

"Other people have worse problems in their lives and I will be looking forward to proving again to myself that I'm always up to a challenge. This is one I'm looking forward to taking on."

Webber believes there is plenty of reason to feel that Red Bull Racing could enjoy a major step forward this season thanks to the raft of regulation changes introduced for 2009.

"It's a clean slate for everyone and it's very exciting for all the teams to have the chance to move up to maybe some different positions to where they have been in the last few years," he said.

"There is a chance that a team like Red Bull Racing could do very well out of a regulation change. We will see how it goes."

When asked whether he could say if this season would make him a winner, Webber said: "Every year we've tried to say that and it hasn't happened. We hope it will happen this year."

Webber had a bolt removed from his broken leg on Thursday and, mindful that he wants to guarantee his fitness for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he says he will not risk too much in testing this week.

"It's still healing," he said about his leg. "We're very much still focusing on Melbourne. We'll see what it feels like to drive. We don't need to go bananas, just see how it feels because we've still got another four tests after this."