Mark Webber had another trouble-free day in the Red Bull RB7 on their third day of the final pre-season test session in Barcelona today.
The Australian driver completed 97 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya, and set the third fastest lap of the day. He is hoping for another good day tomorrow, Red Bull’s final day of pre-season testing, and uncharitably hopes that unfavourable conditions will befall the teams who have chosen to test on Saturday.
“We had a good day again,” said Webber. “The car was reliable, so hopefully the weather will stay dry tomorrow and then rain on Saturday, so we get a good week out of it!
“I feel I'm ready for the first race now and while, of course you want a good run at your home race, I don't want to jinx with it any forecasts,” he added. “In terms of team preparation, it's the best we've ever had going into the first part of a season in terms of reliability. All the departments have done a sensational job in getting every aspect ready. Hopefully, we're not too far from our main rivals to start with and we'll just go from there.”
Head of Race Engineering Ian Morgan agreed with the optimistic thoughts of his driver. “It's been a good week so far, with no major difficulties,” he explained. “The weather helped us out a bit as well. With track temperatures near 30°C, it was nice to finally get a bit of running in the kind of conditions we may see at some European races. All in all, a successful day and I think Mark's now pretty comfortable with everything. He has a good feel for the car and how the tyres work, which is more important than ever this season.
“Tomorrow, it will be Seb's turn to complete his pre-season work. We'll run through a similar programme to today and, as with Mark, try to get him as comfortable as possible with everything before we pack up for Australia.”
