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With a world-class Formula One venue pretty much on our doorstep (and three or four motorsport anoraks in the office), crankandpiston was keen to make the most of the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.
Now while we were unable to wander liberally from garage to garage and try each of the cars on for size, the good people at both Red Bull and Infiniti managed to wangle crankandpiston a few passes to the paddock. It wasn’t long too before we grabbed a very quick word with one of the team’s brightest stars.
Mark Webber: nine-time Grand Prix winner and – being an Aussie – a real top bloke!
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Mark, this season has been more unpredictable than most, hasn’t it?
“Very! I think particularly the first ten to twelve races were very unpredictable. I think the last four or five we’ve seen a little more consistency with mainly the teams that have been competitive, i.e. Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.”
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At the beginning though, more often than not you couldn’t predict winners from weekend to weekend. I mean, Formula One had seven different winners in seven different races, one of whom was yourself at Monaco…
“At the start of the year it was very hit and miss. We had different people winning, different people on the podium, a lot of people struggling to get a good performance, including us. There were big regulation changes during the off-season, and particularly the tyres. Those made things difficult to get right.
“But I think that’s settled down now, which is probably not great for the fans, but the hardwork is paying off and we’re starting to understand how we can make the car perform better.”
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In 2011 you scored points in all but one race, a result that, in years gone by, could easily have led to Championship victory [which ultimately went to Sebastian Vettel]. Quite a successful year but at the same time quite frustrating?
“[Pause] Well, we wrapped up the Constructor’s Championship up pretty early last year, and Seb won the Driver’s Championship very early. So that was a very strong season for our car, and very demoralising for the opposition, and probably not great for the fans in terms of watching it. But this year’s been different.”
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In the context of Sebastian’s run of form in the last four races, how do you keep your focus when competitors get on a roll?
“It’s dangerous when Seb gets on a run, because like any sportsmen and women they thrive on a bit of confidence, and you can see even sometimes with him. Sometimes it can affect him a little bit. It’s rare but it does happen. But all of us – and I include Fernando [Alonso] and Lewis [Hamilton] and myself – when Seb gets on a roll, he can be quite strong, and we’ve seen that the last few seasons in the back part of the Championship
“But for me, how do I deal with that? I’m pretty good with it actually. You just have to keep focus on yourself. I can’t control what Seb does. He’s a class act and he’s driving very well. But it’s my goal to try to beat him as often as possible and as consistently as possible…”
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But not just Sebastian?
“Not just Sebastian, no. If I was happy just to beat him, at the start of the season I wouldn’t have been beating other people. He’s had a good run. But there’s also quite a few positives out of the last few races for me in terms of how close it’s been in qualifying. I actually pipped him in Korea [which incidentally was Mark’s second pole position of the season]. It was a shame we had a bit of a KERS issue in the last race [India], but I’m still happy with my performances.”
