Abu Dhabi: Emotionless one-word answers sort of sum-up Mark Webbers' season at Red Bull Renault, playing second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel.
Asked yesterday, while out dune bashing ahead of this weekend's Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, whether he thought his already world-title re-crowned teammate would do him any favours to help him towards his first win of the season in the remaining two races, Webber coldly shrugged: "No".
It was almost as dismissive and deadpanned as an earlier enquiry as to whether the Australian was still happy at the reigning constructor's champion: "Yeah".
Through history, inner team rivalries within Formula One are pretty cliché, but there's no doubt the Red Bull pit isn't exactly a cheery place to be if you're that other driver in a fairytale of back-to-back drivers and constructor's gongs — putting a shift in but not winning the plaudits.
Currently fourth on 221 points, Webber can still make second with results in Abu Dhabi and Sao Paulo, but other than that there's only next season to look forward to.
‘Nearly man'
The 2012 campaign couldn't come quick enough if, like Webber, you're the ‘nearly man' for three years running.
Having blown away a debut world title this time last year, at a dramatic end-of-season Abu Dhabi finale showdown between himself, Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso — Yas Marina is not exactly his favourite place to be.
But it might need to be if he is to cement a long awaited world championship of his own one day.
"It's not like when I go to Monaco, where I won and obviously have beautiful memories. Some tracks don't have the best memories but I have the opportunity to change that," said Webber, who has recorded nine podiums in 2011.
"It would be nice to be able to do that after last year where things didn't go my way. An elusive win would be nice. I'm still in a position to improve my standing in the championship, which is second obviously to getting a win I suppose. Executing a nice clean weekend would be rewarding, if you have everyone behind you obviously that's a bonus."
Good consistency
Of his season Webber added: "I'd say I've had a lot of good results this year I just haven't had enough wins. When you start to get those obviously the championship changes — I could be sat in tenth position with a couple of wins and loads of crashes. It's measured on the wins which haven't materialised so people might say that's disappointing but consistency has been very good."
"We didn't have the smoothest of starts, we had a lot of reliability issues. No one wants to hear excuses but that's the way it is. I've still managed to get something out all the races with the exception of Monza so I would say it's not been too bad a year, but not sensational."
Of the sport's youngest champion, Vettel, who already reclaimed the title in Japan four races before the end, Webber said: "He's had a phenomenal year no doubt about it and he's made all of us look like we didn't get going — Seb's had that margin to make a difference. Before you know it he's accumulated lots of wins."
"It's probably a bit hard to take if you haven't had success in the past but I've had good success previously. This year is just the way it's gone and I look forward to an opportunity in the future to do well," said Webber, who's had six career wins since 2002.
Fine margins
"It's very fine margins and all of us know that, so that's what we'll be looking forward to next year, to obviously get a bit of balance back. Seb will always be there no doubt, he's talented and quick but it remains to be seen if someone can dominate into next year."
As to whether Webber can still go onto personal glory with Red Bull next season, he said: "They have a pretty good car here. I know it's a fair question to ask, but I'll have to find out next year."
