Mark Webber has spoken of his frustration at the new Williams FW27's handling problems, which he expects to keep him out of the running for victory at his home race in Melbourne, next weekend.
The Australian admitted, after driving over Sydney Harbour Bridge for a promotional event, that the team only has itself to blame for the balance issues with the car that have forced it to rule itself out of a win in the season opener.
"We're not happy," he told Reuters. "I'm a competitive person and to get beaten by other people, I don't enjoy that.
"To do that in Australia is more frustrating but we've only got ourselves to blame. We could have very easily been in a much better position but we're not and there are no excuses for that."
Webber has taken solace in the fact that even if the car doesn't have the pace of some its rivals at the moment it has at least posed few reliability issues during winter testing.
"We are definitely more reliable than other teams, which is encouraging, although performance is something that you always want," he said. "I'd rather be fragile and fast than a little bit slow and bullet proof."
"I'm expecting it to be a very close fight at the front and it would be great if we could come away from the first race with some points in the bag which we could take onto Malaysia and the rest of the season."
Webber is well aware of the burden of expectation laid upon him by his home fans who are hungry for Australian success in F1, something they have not seen since the time of Alan Jones in the early '80s.
It's a prospect he embraces and he clearly made the most of his trip across one of Australia's most famous landmarks.
"Thundering with 900bhp over that time-honoured structure was an amazing feeling," he said. "The engine sound over the ocean was fantastic.
"I just can't thank everybody enough in my home state New South Wales who made this show for the fans possible."
