Question: Mark, I am not sure what the Australian word for deja vu is but here we go again. Third pole in a row and I suppose reward for all the reliability problems you have had this weekend.
Mark Webber: Yeah, it hasn’t been the smoothest of weekends for us in terms of getting the running in. Obviously Friday was a little bit disrupted but not massively to be honest. If you could ever have a problem with the engine it is probably the right time to have it. This morning also we were not having the easiest P3 to be honest but getting ready for qualy, things started to get a bit better. I was a little bit on the back foot going into it to be honest but I knew I could dig deep, keep going and get something out of it. In the end it turned out okay. To be honest I am more comfortable with tomorrow than I am on out-and-out pace. But at least I am starting in the right place. It was a tight fight between all of us and Seb had a bit of a problem with his car but apart from that we are all very close.
Question: You chose to come out of the garage for your final flying lap ahead of Sebastian. The previous lap you would have been behind Sebastian. Was that trying to put pressure on him at that stage?
Mark Webber: No, I don’t know what happened. It should have been me second. But, anyway, I think we left too early. I don’t know what happened. We need to see what happened on the pit wall. Normally I would go second this weekend.
Question: Mark, no pressure but the guy on pole has won four out of five races here in Turkey and you are the championship leader, so it is your race?
Mark Webber: I have had worse pressure. I think it was nine from nine in Barcelona and I made it 10 from 10. It is a nice place to start the race. Potentially it is one of the more interesting races tomorrow. It is a long race. The tyres go with different people here and there but we are optimistic that we can get a good result from there.
Question: Mark, well done. This is becoming a habit. It is also Red Bull’s seventh consecutive pole in seven races this year. A remarkable record.
Mark Webber: Yes, it is a great record. It shows tremendous pace in the car. We have been to a lot of different venues now but we are still a very quick team. That is a big feather in our cap from previous seasons, let’s say. Particularly last year. We had a good car but it was a little bit snookered in some venues. It is a real credit to the whole team that we can come to these tracks and be strong. In Abu Dhabi we had a front row and I was also in the front row in Brazil, so I think it is quite a few races now where the team, looking at the back part of last year, we have had a good run of it of late. We need to convert on Sundays. We have done that the last few races reasonably well and that’s what the team’s focus will be on tomorrow.
Question: Tell us about your race pace. Lewis was feeling his race pace was particularly strong.
Mark Webber: I had a very, very poor long run in P2 but we know why. Normally my long runs have been fine this year. It has been more of strength for me compared to qualy in some ways. It didn’t work that well in P2 on Friday but we will get on top of that and then we go from there, so looking forward. We know everyone will start on the option, get on with it. An interesting race. We had an interesting feel with the gap to Lewis in Barcelona. They are a bit more competitive here but we certainly still had something in our sleeve there, so we will see how it goes.
Question: I don’t know if you saw the speed trap times but a difference of six kph in comparison to the McLarens. They were 320kph at the end of the straight and yourselves 314kph.
Mark Webber: Yeah, we are achieving similar lap times in a different way. No question about it. Certain parts of the track they are strong but there are certain parts we are strong, so the stop watch it pretty close at the end. But there are certain parts of the track that are different.
Question: Do you feel you would have liked to run the F-duct now?
Mark Webber: No, we went in with our eyes wide open. It is a pretty special project to get right. McLaren got the jump on everyone and fair play to them. We have got some fantastic people in our team knowing what we need to do in the future. We have more to lose than to gain by taking any risks. We are not exactly in a situation like a team that is fifth or sixth quickest. We are in the hunt. Let’s consolidate and inch by inch we can introduce things. We have never put stuff on the car to make it slower, so we are not going to start now.
Question: Mark, in the general perception people think about the history of Ferrari, Red Bull is more like the new kid on the block. People always remember a season when a team has dominated so much and Red Bull has had a long run of seven pole positions and maybe you feel that. Does the team have the feeling of making history; maybe one day people will remember the season when Red Bull scored several pole positions in a row or something like that?
Mark Webber: No. The way this team will be remembered this year is if we win some championships, not by pole positions and that’s how Ferrari and McLaren have been remembered and Williams because they’ve been very, very successful racing teams for a long, long time. Yes, we are new kids on the block, you’re totally right. We’re a bit fresh in areas, a lot of new people two or three years ago. Continuity at the moment has been very, very good for our team internally, so everyone, in terms of egos, in terms of how it all is, there’s a really good balance because it’s not easy to have five or six hundred people all in love with each other. But generally it’s pretty good, so that’s a great strength of the team as well. And let’s see. The end of the year is a long, long way away. That is why Dietrich (Mateschitz - team owner) decided to race against these big guys because he wants his product up there at the highest level to race against the best people in the world. He’s not hanging around where he can get easy victories in other categories which are much more straightforward. Formula One is as tough as it gets and it’s a credit to the team where they are at the moment and we need to try and do even better which is a huge challenge but we’re looking forward to it.
Question: Do you believe that as a driver, even an experienced driver, a World Champion, under pressure you can start making mistakes regularly?
Mark Webber: I’ve been very lucky, during my time, to meet a lot of successful sportsmen and women and I don’t think it matters what you’ve done in the past in your career and in the future, that’s what sport is about. That’s why we love turning up to test ourselves and there is always an element of pressure to perform and do well in any sport. So having spoken to lots of different people at the highest level of their sports, of course they go through times when the pressure is up or down a little bit in certain sections throughout your career. So I assume you’re talking about Fernando or someone like that. Alonso is an incredible driver, we know that, and he wants to get more out of the situation but obviously it didn’t happen for him and it’s normal. What he did in the Renault against Michael all those years ago was under incredible pressure and he did a phenomenal job. This is sport.
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