Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren confident they can win world title
While the newer Formula One teams struggle to keep up with the rest of the pack, the veteran teams are cool and calm, and all boasting of a first place finish in the Drivers and Constructors championship.
Red Bull driver and champion points leader Mark Webber said he is confident that he can continue to bring good results for the team on the last seven races. Webber insisted that there are no weak tracks for his team, and he will to focus on consistency in order to maintain his lead.
“We've shown this year that the car is performing on all tracks so we hope we don't have any weak circuits," Webber reported via video interview on Red Bull’s official website.
“For sure Singapore should be good, Suzuka, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. We're a little bit worried about how the long straights might go at some of the other venues, at maybe Monza. But the car is very, very strong at most tracks so we're ready to take on anyone at any venue and I'm looking forward to all the races coming up."
Webber is four points ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who won the title in 2008. While he hopes for a win at Spa ina few weeks he maintains that the most important thing is staying strong at all the remaining events.
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso believes he has a 50 percent chance of winning the world championship and beating Webber. After his controversial win at Hockenhiem and second place finish at Budapest, the Ferrari team is 20 points off Webber’s lead.
“It only took us two normal races to be fully back in contention for the title,” Alonso said. “It’s true we are still behind in the classification and it is always better to be in front, but I am convinced that in the final sprint—by which I mean the last two or three races—we will be closer to the top than we are now.”
Ferrari continues to develop their 2010 car in order to challenge the Red Bull team. Though the Red Bull drivers have dominated this season, neither Webber or Sebastian Vettel have ever won a championship title, something that Ferrari has going in their favor.
Both McLaren drivers, Hamilton and Jenson Button, have won championships before, and Alonso thinks in the end it could come down to a fight between these two teams. “Maybe, Hamilton, Button and myself, who have already won a title, will tackle the final rush in a calmer way having already experienced something similar.”
McLaren had a strong start to the year, but recently has fallen behind after failing to capitalize on several advantages in a number of races, not to mention the Hungary race was McLaren’s worst race weekend of the season.
Hamilton is the only one to admit that the road ahead of the McLaren team is going to be a difficult one. “These seven races are going to be hard. We're hanging on by a thin thread at the moment," Hamilton said. "If they [Red Bull] continue with the pace they have, then we really don't have huge hope.”
But the challenge to come back and fight for the lead is only uniting the team and making them stronger. “I do believe we can catch them," said Hamilton. "I have complete faith in my team, and I still feel we can do it,” he said.
“It's not a case of saying 'oh, it's all right, at the next race we'll be OK.' It's a case where we have to pull together everything we have, in terms of resources of the team, the knowledge we all have, and to be the most united we have ever been."
As it stands, the top five teams are Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes GP, and Renault and the top five drivers Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button and Alonso.
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