Red Bull driver Mark Webber has said that being largely ignored when people list their favourites for the 2010 title is a "good position" for him to be in going into the new season, given the wealth of big names at the front.
Webber will race alongside Sebastian Vettel in the only unchanged line-up at the 'big four' teams in 2010, while 2009 champion Jenson Button has moved to join Lewis Hamilton at Super ZOMG Team GB, Fernando Alonso has switched to Ferrari and Michael Schumacher has returned with Mercedes GP.
But while Vettel is constantly being namedropped among the potential title winners, Webber is more often than not ignored as being a genuine title contender.
The Aussie, though, insists that he is perfectly happy with that arrangement.
"I don't get wound up about it," he smiled pleasantly to the UK tits-n-speculation rag the Daily Star, "Let's see if I can do as last year and have people saying 'Bloody hell, he's in the hunt'.
"I accept that I might be a bit of a dark horse, but that is a good position for me to be in."
He added that: "It's normal people will go for Jenson, Lewis, Michael, Sebastian, who is young, Massa, who has fought for the championship, and Alonso, who has two titles."
Webber added that he felt stronger in 2010 because he was finally fully recovered from his cycling accident at the start of 2009. He had to race for all of 2009 still suffering the aftereffects of a broken leg sustained when he collided with a 4x4 while on a charity bike ride.
"The big difference for me this year is physically and mentally," Webber explained, "I don't have the worry of waking up wondering if the leg has improved. It's hard to say if it affected my performance [in 2009].
"Maybe mentally I was a bit drained because I did have an off-season with operations and recuperation."
The Aussie also revealed that he had become something of a biffer in the run-up to the new season, and has worked hard in recent weeks to loks 5kg he put on over a winter disrupted by a final piece of surgery to remove a metal rod from his formerly-injured leg.
Webber proudly told the Daily Express that it was "the heaviest I have ever been in my career", but confirmed that he has now slimmed back down to a lean 75kg ahead of the season-opening Bahrain GP weekend.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
