Red Bull's Mark Webber has insisted that he is a massive outsider for the championship this season, after saying that the majority of the remaining circuits on the calendar will favour the Brawn GP cars over his own Red Bull machine.
Webber currently sits in third place in the standings, 20.5 points behind Brawn's Jenson Button with six races to go to the end of the season. The Australian driver now believes that after Rubens Barrichello's win at Valencia last weekend, the remaining tracks will favour the Brawn team.
When asked about his title chances after Valencia, where he finished out of the points in 9th place, albeit only two places behind Button, Webber said that: "It's certainly not impossible, but it's going to be tough. Looking at what happened in Valencia, we've got Singapore and Abu Dhabi as well.
"If we had the middle section of the races to the end of the year, we'd be saying we'll give it a little nudge. But it's going to be hard. It's not an excuse - we capitalised when the tracks suited us. But there will always be pressure on the driver leading until he has won it."
The middle portion of the season, at tracks like Silverstone and the Nurburgring, saw Red Bull dominate the race weekends totally, as the aero-heavy tracks and cold conditions played to the RB5's strengths, but according to Webber, the car's sensitivity to changing track conditions had hindered their efforts for consistent frontrunning pace this year.
"It's venue dependent," Webber mused, "That's why it is see-sawing so much. And the cars are sensitive to track temperatures.
"It is Brawn's to lose, we know that. They are the hunted and we have to gain a lot on them. We need a phenomenal amount of points and a very consistent run, and even then we need to have both of the Brawns to have a rough run to get to the top of the championship. It's not impossible, but as we know things can change fast. There are a lot of points to go."
Despite downplaying his chances of taking the title from under Button's nose, Webber said that this season had been "sensational" when compared to his other years in the sport.
"I've had a lot of seasons in the past when the motivation is testing if the car is not reliable or quick," Webber grinned, "It's not enjoyable – although it's nice to drive the car it's not good to see the timesheets.
"This year has been sensational for me, with four podiums, some good finishes and more weekend's where we've extracted the most from the car. It's something that I'm very happy about. A lot of people said to me when I broke my leg that you are going to come out of this stronger. Maybe I have."
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