Webber: Midfield battle is tightest ever

The Australian finished six of the first eight races of the year inside the top seven, but Red Bull have been overtaken by Renault, Toyota and Toro Rosso in the second half of the campaign.

"It's amazing how tight that midfield group is in terms of performance," said Webber. "We were on the front of it for so long, then dropped off the back and got fully exposed by some of the other teams with two cars getting big results.

"Jarno Trulli at Timo Glock (at Toyota) and obviously Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet (at Renault) have had some big points. The scoreboard never lies, David and I together haven't scored enough points.

"Honda finished fourth in the constructors' a few years ago when they were consistently 1.5 seconds off the pace. Now they are about the same and they are nowhere. It goes to show how much tighter Formula One is now."

Webber is hoping for rain at Interlagos this weekend to mix things up and increase the team's chances of making up the five-point deficit to Toro Rosso.

"We're seventh and it's crucial that we stay ahead of Williams," he said. "If we can get Toro Rosso, great. But it's unlikely. To be honest, I'm looking for rain. With mixed conditions, we stand a chance of getting more than if it's a dry, boring grand prix in which we might nick one or two points if we're lucky.

"We need a different sort of race to get the points thrown around to maybe help us in the constructors' championship."