Webber hails Red Bull's progress

The Milton Keynes-based team put in some of their most competitive performances in the recent Japanese and Chinese Grands Prix, even though they somehow missed out on what could have been a major points haul.

Webber says the team made a breakthrough in understanding the RB3 in their final test of the season in Jerez, and he is bullish that they and technical chief Adrian Newey are now getting on top of what they need to do.

"Yeah, the Jerez test was quite encouraging for us because we changed the car a little it, but not a huge amount," he told autosport.com.

"There have been months during the mid-season where we've known that we wanted to try to address things that we wanted to do differently, and we've got those on the car, which is better for us.

"Adrian and the guys are obviously chipping away, and together with David (Coulthard) and I, we're working a lot and we need to try to make the car go quicker.

"Even in China what surprised me and, I know it sounds very, very arrogant, but it's the lack of pace (of other teams). We're not doing a huge amount differently, but David and I moved up five or six positions.

"It's just so tight in there, but it's amazing how much Renault and Williams, and BMW - it's amazing with BMW - that they're struggling as much as they are. But we might have been developing the car eight to ten weeks longer than they have."

The new parts introduced for the Far East flyaways are development bits being evaluated for 2008. But even though clear progress is being made, Webber is not shying away from the efforts that are still needed this winter.

"I have been talking to Christian (Horner) about it. We had about 10 rivers facing us in the middle of the season, and now we're narrowing them down to, 'OK, this is what we think is the right direction'.

"But we've still got a long way to go because the last few that are left, there are still some big decisions to be made in terms of the actual direction Adrian wants to go aerodynamically, how the car is, the concept and how the baby's going to be thrown together.

"These last, late little changes are going to help us make those decisions."