Mark Webber says he is not taking anything for granted ahead of the new Formula 1 season after the Red Bull driver set a new benchmark time of 1m19.299sec time in testing at Jerez on Friday.
The Australian revealed after his proper consistently dry day of running that he believed the new RB6 to be a "good car" but that it was too early to say how it compares to that of his McLaren and Ferrari rivals.
"Today was pretty good; next week might be different," he said. "We need to keep an eye on things as they progress in the early part of the championship. I promise you that in Malaysia we won't be talking about the second test in Jerez, things change fast in F1."
Both of the tests at Jerez have been beset by poor weather conditions and Friday proved the first day where the teams could really begin to work through development programs.
"It wasn't too bad today, it was good to get some dry running in," said Webber. "We tried a mixture of very high and other different fuel loads. It's got to be done because every dry lap is pretty important these days so this is a lot better than we expected today. Also, tomorrow looks half decent. It's a good baseline for us to work on next week as well in terms of consistent testing. This is the first time we have had a consistent track, so hopefully next week we can start to hone in on a few more specific things."
The 33-year-old Australian added that he believed the RB6 to be a fundamental improvement over its race-winning predecessor but said that direct comparisons were difficult to make because of the new fuel regulations and tires introduced for 2010.
"When the car is very heavy, it's a different ball game," he said. "Plus the tires...it's like Roger Federer with a tennis racket...the tires are crucial for us. The tires are that different it's so hard to compare.
"But the basics of the car are very good – we have a good car. We still have more learning to do and there is a lot of hard work to be done."
Full Q&A with Mark Webber