Webber: “No one has the best car”
Although he is currently leading the championship, Fernando Alonso does not have the best car on the grid. But then, who has the ultimate weapon in 2012? For Webber, no one.
During the first 11 Grand Prix races, five teams have won: McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Williams, and Red Bull. Today, the German team seems to have lost some ground to its competitors while Lotus is increasingly positioning itself as a contender for victory. The English team also believes that Spa-Francorchamps could prove to be an ideal playground for its E20 equipped with the Double DRS.
« We hope to have it at Spa. There is still a lot of work to do by then, and we don’t have much time because of the factory shutdowns. It will be more beneficial to use it on a track with many straights, » explains James Allison, the technical director of Enstone.
A victory would be a good result for the championship, especially for Kimi Räikkönen who can still aim for the world title. With a 48-point deficit to Alonso and only 8 points behind his runner-up, Mark Webber, everything is still up for grabs until Interlagos. Mark Webber believes that the road will be long until the last race of the season and that the championship is far from decided, given the small gap between the different cars.
« I don’t know who has the best car. There are discussions around the fact that the Ferrari isn’t the best, but you need the most consistent one. I don’t think anyone has the fastest car at the moment. After Valencia, it was our car, then at Silverstone, it was Fernando who had it (the fastest) until six laps from the end, then suddenly it was us who were the fastest again. Then there’s McLaren and Lotus, » observes the Australian driver.
After the summer break, the Formula One Circus will set up at Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Ardennes. Red Bull achieved its first success on this track last season and Webber expects to be competitive again in 2012 but not to dominate outrageously.
« We know we might have a chance. But I don’t think anyone is going to break away over the distance, » explains Webber.
First victory for a Lotus? Another success for Alonso? Tightening between the top two in the championship? There is no doubt that the Belgian Grand Prix will be, as is often the case, interesting in more ways than one.
