Red Bull driver Mark Webber has said that he must be looking to challenge for the title next season, after enjoying his best season of his career in 2009, albeit one still ruined by sporadic burst of bad luck and reliability problems.
Webber finally broke his duck in the sport he entered back in 2002 by winning the German Grand Prix this year, and he followed that up with victory in last weekend's Brazilian race. But he had to watch as Jenson Button took the title, with Webber's own championship hopes long gone.
Prior to the Brazilian victory, he had endured a run of five pointless races, largely through no fault of his own, that crippled his title bid, which had looked relatively strong in the middle part of the season.
But putting his dramas behind him, Webber says that he hopes a strong end to the 2009 campaign can spur him and the team on into an even stronger 2010, particularly as this season he has been racing with the aftereffects of his pre-season cycling accident, which left him with a badly broken leg.
"Our hope for 2010 has to be to go for the championships," Webber ghostwrote on the BBC website, "There is only one more position that this team can get, so that is what we have to aim for. We need to keep improving.
"Up until Singapore there were only a couple of points between Sebastian and I so there is absolutely no reason at all why I can't fight for the championship next season."
He spoke about his frustration that his promising 2009 had been ruined by inconsistency, saying that he needs to focus on stringing together a full season of performances if he wants to have a shot at the championship.
"I am disappointed that my championship bid faded, but as always you need to put a whole season together," Webber continued in his 'writing', "We had a non-points scoring finish in Melbourne and a couple of ninth-place finishes in Valencia and Spa, where we got a drive-through penalty.
"Lots of little things turn into big things and that is how you lose a championship."
He added that inconsistency was not a problem for him alone in the Red Bull team this year, adding: "It was the same for my team-mate Sebastian Vettel. He had a few crashes here and there and the odd failure. That is enough for us not to be in the hunt."
Webber concluded that he has learned valuable lessons this year, and says that he is still at a perfect age to win a championship.
"The biggest lesson I have learnt from this season is you need to cut out the little things," he scrawled, "You need to make each session count and really put it together across the season.
"OK I am not 21, but I am not 40 either, so all of this will help me going forward into next year."
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