Webber: more fun, less success for Alonso

That is the view of Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber, a former Renault test driver, who thinks that it will be difficult for the French car manufacturer to rediscover the form that took them to world titles in 2005 and 2006.

"He won't achieve the same as he did with McLaren this year," Webber said during a visit to the Swatch Snowmobile Challenge near Salzburg. "He won't be challenging for the title until 20 laps from the season's end (as he did this year).

"Renault, for sure, will bounce back and will start next year with a lot of motivation. Fernando will be happier than this year, no doubt, but if he will be more successful will be debatable".

Webber is also keeping his fingers crossed that F1 itself has a better time in 2008, because he thinks this year's spectacular on-track racing was ruined by the politics that overshadowed the season.

"From a sporting and racing point of view it was a sensational year," he explained. "(Michael) Schumacher was gone, (Fernando) Alonso was big, and nobody expected a sensational rookie (Lewis Hamilton) to challenge Fernando and Kimi (Raikkonen) for the title.

"Off the track, it was a pure mess. There are so many technicalities in F1 that it is hard to understand for fans how all this works. It would be much better to just fill up with fuel, go racing and whoever is fastest, wins.

"But unfortunately it isn't as easy as that. All those court cases and penalties were no good for F1."