Can Webber win the championship?

[Principessa]

Before the start of the season, everybody was convinced that Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel would win the 2010 Championship title. Now, a few months later, it seems that his biggest opponent is his own team mate Mark Webber. On many sites and in many newspapers they are talking about this topic, but I would like to hear the opinions of you all on the subject.

[WhiteBlue]

Sure he can. The more interesting question would be about quantifying his chances.

FYI, Hamilton was the pre season favorite by a long way from Vettel. Hamilton started 3.8 and Vettel 7.3. That is almost twice as bad as Hamilton. Webber started 20.3 pre testing season which was the worst score of the top eight drivers at that time.



Here you see how he was rated by the bookies/betters over the whole season. He came from nowhere and was pretty much ignored for a long time. His rating improved from P8 to P6 during testing which was more an issue of the car than personal performance.

After his recent good form he made progress in the odds but was still rated on P4/5 together with Button compared to Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton after his win in Spain. The second win in Monaco put him up to P3 now, which is quick progress. If he keeps outscoring Vettel I'm sure he will continue to rise, but the punters do not easily get convinced by a surge of form it looks.

Personally I see him better than Button.



Interestingly in a hypothetical situation where all drivers would drive the same car Webber would still be rated on fifth place.

[marcush.]

to me it is crunch time for Vettel and Webber now as the season develops and they finally started to reel in some good points.
two or three weekends like montecarlo and Vettel is done.to me there is no question Redbull will win the championship .

[Belatti]

Of course he can. He drives a Red Bull.

Unlike McLaren in Senna-Berger times or Williams in Mansell-Patrese times there is not such a drivers performance difference between Seb and Mark.

And unlike Ferrari in Schu times there are no team orders or b-spec cars.

[raymondu999]

I think though that Silverstone and Turkey will see a fightback from Vettel

[WhiteBlue]

I think though that Silverstone and Turkey will see a fightback from Vettel

Edited:

I'm fairly confident for Vettel in Turkey because the track is quite new and Vettel has a similar experience level. Silverstone in the dry and without their tyre warming problem from last year could be a Webber circuit again because he must have done a lot more laps there and probably has more experience to factor in the wind. The new part of the track probably will not make much difference. All speculation of course.

[raymondu999]

errmh... sorry, confident in which way? Webber or Vettel's way? Turkey and Silverstone Vettel outqualied Webber though. And Vettel won at Silverstone last year.

I don't quite get your comment on "it's new." Do you mean that the track is quite new? (only 5 or 6 races so far I believe) and Silverstone is new though, remember.

[BreezyRacer]

This should have been a poll, but yes, of course, Webber can be Champion, and not thru some fluke either. This guy is hooked up at the moment and has never been far from Vettel's best performances even on his worst days. Why is everyone so surprised?

Red Bull is a juggernaut and Webber has done quite a bit to make it that way. It's certainly not like he doesn't have the pace and the experience to convert opportunities into wins.

Keep this in mind .. last year .. the whole year .. Webber couldn't break into a jog, literally he couldn't run. His leg was that bad, and still he did well. This year his health is back and he's sitting in the best car in the grid. He will not waste this once in a lifetime opportunity.

And before anyone points to the car as the sole reason just look who he has to beat every race, in addition to Alonso et all .. Vettel in exactly the same equipment. He will richly deserve it should he win.

[zgred]

Mark: Yes, I can!

Yes he can... He has wind in his wings this time.

[jon-mullen]

If he keeps sticking it on the first row along with Vettel so there's no one around for him to crash into, it's his for the taking IMO. I'm sure he realizes right now that he doesn't have to get desperate or push the car as hard as he's had to push others in the past. The Red Bull seems to be massively ahead of the rest and well-financed enough that Ferrari and McL won't overtake them in the development race before the end of the year. Still, with 25 points for a win, the top three in the WDC only three points apart and the top eight only 22 points apart, it's anyone's guess. Both Red Bulls have left a LOT of points on the track so far this year with reliability issues.

[roost89]

Yes he can

[Pandamasque]

Yes he can, and I hope he will.

[andrew]

Too early to say anyone can win the championship.

I am not a huge Webber fan and I would like to see Massa and Schumacher get it together and start winning and winning lots.

[raymondu999]

Well if you're going to go technical, technically right now (meaning mathematically) anyone can still win the championship, even Senna/Chandhok etc. But if you're talking about possibility, I think that really anyone in Ferrari/McLaren/Red Bull are quite likely, with Renault's Kubica and the Mercedes twins the long shot for the title.

Can Webbo win it? Too early to say. I think probably we'd get a much better picture (obviously) towards the last 3 or 4 races.
Can Webbo fight for it? I'm sure. And he probably will.

But I guess it's too early to make long and far predictions on who will win the championship.

[segedunum]

Of course he can because he drives a Red Bull.

However, I've been following Webber's career for longer than two races and while he can be totally unbeatable on a weekend where everything goes OK he has an awful habit of making the wrong decisions when he comes under a bit of pressure. Too defensive and over-aggressive by half and that's ultimately why he was 33 points behind Justin Wilson in 2001. A leopard doesn't change its spots unfortunately.