Red Bull, Mark Webber: “I have to work hard to come back strong next year”

Mark Webber thinks a better qualifying performance and a strong first stint in the race are key to achieving victory in Formula 1.

The Australian is chasing his first win of the season, with just two Grands Prix remaining on the calendar, but understands where he is lacking compared to world champion and teammate Sebastian Vettel.

While the suspicion earlier this year was that Webber was struggling to get to grips with the new Pirelli tyres, the Red Bull Racing driver reckons his overall situation was more about being too far behind in the early stages of the race. races.

Thus Webber in an interview: “The first stint of the race, from the start to the first pit stop, is still very important, almost as much as it was in previous years. With the difference that, when we had refueling in the race we could be flexible with the strategies, switching between a stop or two.”

“Nowadays it's pretty much all decided from the start, especially if you're racing for the top four positions. Obviously you can do a catch-up in the race, as Jenson did, as I have already done too many times.”

“But in general, the three in front do the same things in the race. However, if you fall behind and have to fight to catch up, the tires will degrade rapidly. In practice, I never did enough in the first part of the race.”

Webber believes his situation is in complete contrast to Vettel, who was very strong in qualifying and controlled almost every Grand Prix up front this year.

“At the start of the season I clearly had some reliability issues which didn't help me. I'm happy with some things, but I never reached last year's level, especially because I didn't have a position in the right place in the first laps. And then I wasn't fast enough in qualifying.”

“Seb is exactly the opposite of me: very strong in qualifying on Saturday, very strong in the first part of the race.”

While Webber hopes the ban on blown speakers will help him, he says he doesn't live in hope that things will permanently change next year.

“The cars are very different. That's why I hope, fingers crossed, that next year, with the ban on waste.." she explained. “Sometimes I said to myself: what the hell is happening, the smallest thing makes the car one way rather than another.”

“But I don't want to live in hope. I need to work hard to come back strong next year. In the first part of the season I had difficulties with pit stops, but now I don't, but I still can't find a good race pace, it's like a puzzle. The next move is to be regularly in the front rows.”