Webber Sees Ferrari, Alonso as Main Title Rivals in 2011

Since everybody seems to tip Red Bull and its two race drivers for the world title in 2011, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber must also name some rivals of their own, at least in sign of fair play. And the latter seems to pick Ferrari and Fernando Alonso as the contenders to beat this season, given the impressive pace shown by the Scuderia's 2011 challenger in recent tests.

“Fernando works for them and he's pretty handy,” said Webber in a recent interview with the BBC.

So far, the Spaniard put in the most laps from the entire field in the 3 group tests in Valencia, Jerez and Barcelona, while Ferrari are also topping all teams in the paddock when it comes to mileage in the off-season. In addition, the F150th Italia experienced only slight reliability issues so far, the last of which occurred during the Barcelona session last weekend.

“Ferrari finished the year very strong and they've come out of the gates very strong; the car is running, it's always out there, they aren't hanging around when they are out there, they're pretty quick and the team are always organized.”

Talking about the recent news according to which the Bahrain Grand Prix will not be held in March as the opening round of the 2011 F1 season, Webber admitted it will be nice to start off the new campaign on home soil. The 2011 season will not officially open on March 25-27, at Albert Park in Melbourne.

“It would have been nice to go to Bahrain but we have to wait a bit longer to have our first race and that just happens to be my home race so, as always, looking forward to going down there. It's a sensational event and and we're in good shape as a team so I hope to go there and have a very good result of course,” he added.