After claiming a long-awaited and hugely popular first victory at the German Grand Prix, Mark Webber has endured a difficult second half to the season. Heading to Sao Paulo for the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix, the Australian vows to be back on the pace for the last two races of the year…
Mark, after a run without scoring points, and two practice crashes in the last two races, are you planning on doing anything different here in Brazil?
Well, at the last couple of races I’ve tried to do exactly what I was doing in the middle of the year, so I’m not going to change a huge amount, to be honest. Suzuka was really disappointing; that was my first big missed opportunity when the car was good and I wasn’t there. Every other time this year when the car’s been good, I’ve been there. We weren’t quick at Monza or Valencia; In Spa I had a drive-through and in Singapore a brake failure. Suzuka was the first time this year I missed a good opportunity and yeah, I’m not looking to do that again this year. I’m looking to finish off with two solid results.
Starting from the pitlane, did you treat Suzuka as an extended testing session for this race?
I was obviously a long way behind – no question about that – but I had a job to do for the team in terms of testing a new front wing. Mileage these days is not so easy to come by, so it’s useful to get information whenever you can. OK it’s towards the end of the year and not the first race, so we’re not trying to get information on the reliability of components or anything like that – but it always helps. Also, for me, I’m not disappointed to drive around Suzuka. It’ll be useful experience for next year.
Does your mindset change when driving under those circumstances?
Aw yeah, you’re a little more relaxed, but you’re still thinking about the car a bit, thinking about your own driving, but the competition’s obviously gone.
Was it a valuable session in terms of gathering data?
Yes, the guys got some good information. I dropped back quite a lot so that I could run in clean air. If you were watching me on TV you might have wondered what the hell was going on – but I don’t think anyone was watching me.
With Sebastian’s engine worries, will you be in a position to help him with practice data this weekend?
I doubt it! My guys are fired up for us to get a good result. We come here to get a good result and we’ll try to get one.
What do you expect from this weekend?
Suzuka was definitely one of our stronger circuits, but Interlagos is a short lap so KERS might play a role here, and we’ll have to wait and see how those cars perform – but I expect us to be competitive at both races remaining this year.
Fernando Alonso said he’ll stay out of the way of the guys fighting for the title. What will you do?
Fernando’s talking bullshit! He doesn’t care about any of that. If he sees an opportunity, he’ll race them.
If Jenson Button wraps up the title this weekend, will he be a deserving champion?
There’s no one who deserves it more than him. He’s won more races than anyone. Really, who deserves it more than Jenson? He’s the guy, I would say. He’s done a lot of overtaking, and the other guys haven’t, and he’s done a lot to get himself out of sticky situations – constantly – to keep his championship alive.
He’s got a good car, definitely, and if you were asking ‘Is Jenson the best driver in the field?’ that would be a different question completely. But does he deserve to be world champion? Yes he does. Is he the best driver? Was Damon Hill the best driver in 1996? I don’t know. The car is quite powerful.
It might rain on Sunday, what’s Interlagos like in the wet?
There are rivers in Turn Three, and a few other places that you have to keep an eye on. Also, getting the timing right to go from full wets to inters isn’t easy because some parts of the track stay wet while others dry – you might have it wet at the top and dry at the bottom. So, yeah, not the easiest venue when it rains… and I’m sure we’ll see some wet running at some stage of the weekend…
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