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With only 7 races remaining, Australian Mark Webber has admitted that he will be driving with the world championship title in mind at this Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix. The 33-year-old Red Bull driver believes that the most consistent driver will win the championship and admitted that he will not be taking as many risks as he would have earlier in the season.
"Finishing is certainly something that you think of," said the Aussie. "With this points system, you need to finish so consistency is important.
"That's something you sign up for straight away because you don't want to win races but have non-finishes. You have to capitalise on the days when you are not potentially going to win to get the next best thing, whatever that may be. That comes down to reliability, the decisions made - when you roll the dice as a midfield team you take a gamble but for us, McLaren and Ferrari there are obviously bigger things at stake. You have to be mindful of the fact that you might not get anything out of it so you need to realise that four points is better than none and gambling."
Webber denied that this weekend's race in Spa and the forthcoming Italian Grand Prix will be a case of damage limitation, despite the tracks' potentially highlighting his car's weakness at high speeds. He went on record with "Always when you are running medium downforce on these cars, it's for a reason. And that reason is long straights. We know that it's not a strength of the car and hasn't been for quite a few years and we know why.
"But we work incredibly hard to make the car strong in other areas and when we go to those venues obviously we are strong.
"We can still keep up at these tracks, but whether we have an advantage remains to be seen. We still weren't uncompetitive in Montreal, but we weren't the pacesetters as we were in some other venues. "I think if we had to have 17 races in a championship, we wouldn't choose Spa and Monza to have races at, but it's part of the calendar and we have to make the car quick everywhere."
However, Webber added that many had assumed that his team would struggle in Valencia, but his team-mate Sebastian Vettel won the race.
He said "We were worried about Valencia, and Sebastian won. "Last year were very poor in Valencia and got blown away, but this year we were quick. Let's see how the top speeds are tomorrow in sector one and sector three and see where people are pitched."
Webber reclaimed the championship lead from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton when he won in Hungary four weeks ago, but his advantage is just four points. Webber is credited with helping make F1 fun and exciting again, and needless to say interest in the sport down under in Australia is running sky high. Richard Branson's Virgin Racing also created some buzz, with Branson a fave in Australia, but they have lacked the results to date that Aussies crave for sports stars and teams. Webber is now thought of as a living legend by many, but he downplays the suggestion.
A Media Man insider was overhead with "If Mark wins the world championship many close think he will then be more than happy to have the tag 'legend' but until that time, champ or just mate, will do him fine."
Live betting on this event was available at NordicBet.com. Race already in progress at press time.
Greg Tingle, Media Man International
