When questioned as to whether Michael Schumacher could be beaten this year Webber said: “I believe we can beat Michael, but how often is the tricky question. Ferrari is incredibly consistent and incredibly reliable – its reliability is ridiculous. It's actually hard to get your head around.

“I hope we can give them a few sleepless nights, because Michael needs a few. Everyone is beatable and they have gone to a level that is incredible, but I hope we can put them under some pressure because they didn't get much last year.”

As for the season that starts in Melbourne Webber acknowledge the fact that there will be a lot of pressure on the team to perform. He added: “Hopefully we will have some good races at the start of the year, but we will be under a lot of pressure. We have set some aggressive targets to get the car lighter, meaner and faster, which you need to do to beat Ferrari

“I am confident that we are going in the right direction, and teams like BAR are also doing the same. It will be tight at the first grand prix.”

As for his team-mate for 2005 Webber said that it was up to the team and that a decision, as far as he knew, had not been made.

Webber said: “That is a bit of a life. I have got a general idea of which way it is going to go, but it is up to the team. They haven't made the decision yet and whatever happens in the other garage I cannot control.”

On the BMW WilliamsF1 web site Webber commented on the reliability that the team has been able to achieve in their recent testing. He said that he felt that the team was working well in this area and that he was satisfied with how things were going, but really he had to wait until the arrival of the new FW27.

Webber said: “Until the new car comes out we are just getting the miles on the FW26. That is all we can do at the moment, and it is getting better.”

He added: “Obviously once we get the new car we will have some new bits that we have to test. But we are just waiting for the FW27 to arrive and so far, as far as reliability is concerned, it has been good.”