Mark Webber: Team knows I can beat Vettel
Mark Webber
Mark Webber is preparing to beat his teammate in 2013 F1 season.
But Webber's teammate is none other than Sebastian Vettel, the triple consecutive and reigning world champion who can now be mentioned in the same breath as greats including Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna and Jackie Stewart.
Australian Webber, however, who has shared the Red Bull garage with the 11-years-younger Vettel throughout the German's title dominance, is not ready to admit defeat.
He recently denied he is sliding into a "supporting role" for Vettel, and in a new interview with Fox Sports News insisted he can match the 25-year-old for sheer pace.
"Sebastian's strength is qualifying, and it was 10-11 this year in his favour," Webber said.
"Two races he had me over one lap on sheer pace. You don't get anything for that, but the team know that's also a measure of if you can put it out there over one lap."
Meanwhile, Kimi Raikkonen denied it is a problem that he is earning a reputation for being a driver who never crashes.
Turun Sanomat newspaper suggested his impressive record, having finished almost every single grand prix in the points this year, might be an invitation to Raikkonen's rivals to brashly overtake.
"It's better than having a reputation for crashing every race," the Lotus driver smiled.
"I've never suffered because of it.
"You don't get past me easily, but I also don't fight like crazy if there is no possibility to hold them behind, because you just end up losing time and they'll eventually get past anyway," added Raikkonen.
Mark Webber can gain a lot if he gets rid of his poor starts. He lost a lot of places this season with his bad F1 starts. In Abu Dhabi for example he qualified 2nd, but lost 3 places at the start of the Grand Prix.
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Those gearbox changes are what hampered Webber's chances of being up there with Vettel and Alonso in the end. I'm not a huge Webber fan, but it would be quite sad to see him retire without having won a world championship, much like Rubens Barrichello who played second to Schumacher at Ferrari.