Webber not worried about long-run pace

Mark Webber has played down concerns about Red Bull Racing's long-run race pace ahead of the season-opener in Bahrain.The Milton Keynes-based squad performed strongly in testing with its new RB6, topping the timesheet on several days, but is widely believed to be harder on its tyres than the rival Ferrari and McLaren cars, which continued to improve their lap times throughout long stints.That led many observers to conclude that Red Bull will be stronger in qualifying than in race conditions, when the level of tyre degradation will be a key factor.Webber is not particularly concerned about any raceday deficiency with the RB6, however, telling reporters in Bahrain that: Some of our long runs were pretty competitive.We're not sitting here thinking we've got a massive problem, but also we know [the need to make the tyres last] is certainly something to be respected.It is going to be something that will change from venue to venue. We need to just go racing and find out what the opposition have got, what their strengths are and what our strengths are.Webber says Red Bull has no intention of slipping down the order after its breakthrough 2009 but admits that the expected four-way battle for supremacy this season will cause bigger changes in the pecking order from race to race.We're not interested in going backwards, he said.It wasn't a five-minute job to get here, and like in any sport trying to maintain that is always a huge challenge, because we've certainly lifted the bar a long way up.I think we've got a few more people at the party this year, with Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and us.It was Brawn last year, this year I think there are a few others who can potentially move [up or down the field] irrespective of where your own performance is.You can be performing at a pretty similar level, but you might be fourth.And despite increasingly confident predictions from some quarters that McLaren and Ferrari will go into the Bahrain weekend as favourites, Webber is not so sure.When you start getting down to the last two- or three-tenths, it's virtually impossible to predict, he said.We know what areas we're giving away time on, and that was the same after the last race of last year [which Red Bull dominated]: there are always weaknesses.We're very optimistic that we can have a strong weekend, no question about it.It's the first time on a hot track [with the 2010 cars].We used to come out here in testing and do some [pre-season] mileage, but no teams have done that so there's no Bridgestone information on that.There are a lot of unanswered questions which we're going to learn the answers to in front of everyone else.