British GP: Interview With Pole Winner Mark Webber

Question: Mark, you won here last year, pole position today, what is it about you and this Silverstone circuit?

Mark Webber: Oh, not sure. I think I always enjoy driving here. You have still got to put it alltogether. You don’t get these results without applying yourself. It was a very mixed session for all of us. Even the build-up, obviously, with yesterday’s rain and things like that. It was important to make sure every lap counted as you never knew if it was the one that would count for your main grid position. So even in Q2 and things like that you wanted to make sure you weren’t caught out and having to scramble around on inters to try and do a time. In the end very happy with the job we did. It is easy to slip up in conditions like that from an organisational and logistical point of view, but also from a driver’s perspective, so very good job from the team and we are in a very good position for tomorrow’s race..

Question: Mark, how big a distraction has all the row over the blown diffusers been in the run-up to the qualifying session this weekend and what are your prospects for the race tomorrow do you think?

Mark Webber: Well, I think the team has handled it pretty well. Seb and I have concentrated on the driving, otherwise it gets very, very boring. But it is not new for our team. Adjustable front ride height controllers, front wings, whatever. Every year we have a new thing to talk about. This last few weeks it has been about this. Let’s hope everyone can find a common ground. It is incredibly boring also for the fans. I think they cannot understand 0.1 per cent of what’s going on. Even for us it is sometimes difficult, so let’s get on with the racing. Keep the rules as simple as possible from the start of the year maybe and go from there. But from my perspective for tomorrow I am in great shape. I have prepared well and ready to challenge for the win for sure.

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Formula 1: Mark Webber Nabs Pole For British Grand Prix

Formula 1: British Grand Prix - Race Line Up

Question: Mark, which side is pole and are you quite happy whichever side it is? Is it on the left side?

Mark Webber: Definitely on the left. If it’s not, we will change it tonight.

Question: Your second pole after Spain and you were a winner here last year. The eighth pole position of your career. Do you derive a lot of satisfaction from this?

Mark Webber: Yes, it is always rewarding when you get the maximum out of the situation. I couldn’t have done any better today apart from obviously being on pole by a bigger margin but that’s not always possible with these guys around. I did my best and it was enough to be the quickest car when it counted. Hasn’t always been the case this year, but today it worked out well. Tricky session. Very easy to look stupid when you make a mistake. Rain and different tyres and what do you do and when do you go and all that sort of stuff. It adds a bit more intensity to the logistical side for the team but also inside the cockpit for us. Particularly in our garage we can’t see much. It’s like being in an underground car park down there. We can’t see the track, we can’t see too much of the conditions so we have got to go purely on the television so engineers did a good job.

Question: Looking at what’s happened over the last couple of days, you could say last couple of weeks, is this Red Bull’s reply perhaps?

Mark Webber: No, it’s not. We are not looking to reply to anything. What has to be re-iterated is that the last three years our team has virtually turned up very, very early and left very, very late. Every team in this pit-lane works hard but our team works incredibly hard as well. We worked with the RB5, RB6, RB7, whatever, to concentrate on that and that’s what we have done for the last few years. What is happening in the last few months is not what we’ve done in the last few months, it’s years of hard work to put ourselves in this position technically. It is a subject at the moment that is topical, which we have had each year, but not maybe as heavy as this one, and we have seen today that we are still going okay. But irrespective of lap times it is all about interpretation of rules and regulations and principles and how you go forward as competing under the right guidelines. Whether we are pole or 10th the team will still continue to have its stance on what they think is correct so it is not a comeback what we did today at all.

Question: Did the car feel any different? Has it felt any different say from Valencia given the regulation change?

Mark Webber: It is always difficult from track to track unless we do proper back-to-backs. We had not a bad chance this weekend because the rules changed, especially every session, so we had a little bit of a chance. But the weather was on top of that as well. It is not going to turn the car 180 degrees, the car is still going pretty well and that’s it.

Question: Mark, you were 0.117s fastest in qualifying on a circuit very favourable to your team. Do you think this is an indication for the rest of the season, because qualifying was mainly your big advantage in comparison to your competitors?

Mark Webber: I think we are still very, very, very good but the red cars might have done a little bit, to come closer today so the rest of the competition - if you look at just today, not tomorrow, but just today - we look like we’re still performing at a very, very high level. Ferrari haven’t been slow today so there might be a bit of form card starting to build for the future, but we obviously need more events to see if that’s possible, but it’s completely fair for you to ask that. Normally we are here - Barcelona, Silverstone, whatever - then you expect us to be down the road but we are, on most people. Obviously these guys (Ferrari) are a bit closer. The cars are very sensitive to lap time at the moment, the tyres, all that sort of stuff, and it wasn’t a normal preparation for qualifying in some ways so let’s see how we are in the next two events to see if your question is right.

Question: Mark, you haven’t led a single lap this season. How likely is it that you will do so tomorrow?

Mark Webber: Well, it’s incredible, isn’t it, that I haven’t but yeah, good chance tomorrow. If I lead one lap, but it’s the right one, then that would be nice but if you lead all the rest, of course it gives you a few more options to control the race and whatnot. It’s not the best statistic for me so far this year but I still have a few points so I need to get some more points by doing what you just said.

Question: A lot has been said about Lewis Hamilton’s driving style. If you were being criticised in the same way, how would you deal with it, how would you react?

Mark Webber: Look, when you’re a professional sportsman you’re going to get criticised at some point in your career. All of us have been, we will be again and it comes with the territory. You’ve got to deal with it.

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