Webber predicting closer season

[davewilson]

This one is for romephius:
Mark Webber is expecting the chasing pack to close the gap to Renault and Ferrari in 2007, as he feels the pair are unlikely to gain any ground on the field in the coming campaign.


The 2006 title challengers won all-but one of the 18 races last season, with both finishing almost 100 points ahead of third-placed team McLaren in the final constructors’ standings.


But Red Bull Racing star Webber is not expecting that duopoly to continue, especially as both teams have had to cope with significant departures.


“You look at the field in terms of how many teams will be stepping up a notch, and I think it’s going to be harder for Ferrari and Renault, not to get an advantage – but obviously with the loss of Michael [Schumacher] and Ross [Brawn], the loss of Fernando [Alonso], for them to get stronger will probably be a little bit harder.


“It’s clearly time for McLaren to launch into them and then there’s other teams like Honda and BMW – and us.


“You know, there’s a lot of teams that can probably close onto the back of that group.”


Webber, however, is wary about making predictions about a likely pecking order ahead of the first race in Melbourne – especially as all teams talk-up their chances of making giant strides ahead of a new campaign.


“Last year we went there [to Melbourne] with Williams with a car that wasn’t supposed to do much and we qualified sixth or seventh and were running an easy third in the race,” he said.


“So it is very difficult.


"It’s like boxers – we’re going into the first race and everyone’s talking it up like you can’t believe.


"It sounds like we’re going to have 22 drivers on the podium! It’s not going to happen.”

Hope he comes through for you!!



The Stig