Mark Webber, here you are at Williams BMW. You've actually joined the team. What are your feelings and initial impressions?
Mark Webber: Of course I'm extremely excited to come to a team with such history, and the results that they've had in the past 25 years in Formula One has been incredible. They've been a great team for the sport as well. Frank (team principal Sir Frank Williams) has run an awesome operation here for so many years. So I'm going to start up work shortly, and that's, I suppose, when it will really sink in, and I start work with the team proper.

And, of course, I think you've already probably received your first orders from Sam Michael, the technical director (on arrival for this interview).
MW: Yes, Sam is very much involved, of course, in the running of the team, and has a big input with how the other drivers go about their work as well. So I'm in contact with Sam quite a lot in terms of what's going on with the team, and what he's thinking, and what his feelings are on certain situations within the team. So it's important for me to stay close to Sam and work forward for the future.

And some work to do today when you finish this interview?
MW: Yeah, got a bit of work on. I've got to check my seat and things for the testing which is coming up, and also do a bit more work. Also meet a lot more people, which I haven't met yet at Williams. I've met a few of the people but, of course, there's a lot of people that work here. And, since leaving Jaguar, it wasn't right to do it before then, so now is probably a better time to go around and get to know the people I'm going to be working with.

Looking around the factory and the museum, there's a lot of history at Williams. Fantastic success over the years. Is that amount of history and success a bit daunting in any way, or does it give you some confidence for the future?
MW: Well, of course it's something which I want to try and build on, the history that they've had here. And the car, I hope, will be very good next year and gives us a good chance to challenge for victories very, very quickly. And straightaway I want to be up the front - and that's what it's all about. That's what we're striving towards, is to win Grands Prix, and if we win enough you never know what happens. But championships are even harder to get, I assume. But the wins are something which we have to look at immediately.

Very soon you're actually going to get to drive a Williams BMW for the first time. What are you expecting, especially in comparison to other F1 cars that you've driven?
MW: It's going to be small detail in every little area. The engine, how the aerodynamics work, how the chassis works, electronics, everything is working together to create the car which is probably quicker than what I have driven in the past, which was the Jaguar of course. And you look at a lap time of, let's say it's only one second quicker … the driver will feel that. It's not a huge amount if you just look at it on the stopwatch, but in our game it is, so I will be feeling that and the car will give me confidence, I'm sure, very, very quickly from the cars I've driven in the past. But, of course, then you want to build on that very quickly as well, and what's happening at the present moment is never good enough. You've got to be keep building.

So what are your aims for that first test in Barcelona?
MW: We will get to know the team, I think. I'm driving the old car and I'm going to be working mainly on tyres, so tyre testing is very important for us. So those two things are the biggest thing for me. It's a long way away from the first race, so testing is very, very important to lay the foundations for our campaign for next year, and I think Antonio (Pizzonia, Williams test driver and Webber's Jaguar teammate for two-thirds of the 2003 season) is going to be using a slightly different car to get more mileage on different components.

A little while ago you nearly had a teammate for next year (Jenson Button) but at the moment it seems you don't have one. Any thoughts on who it might be, or do you really care?
MW: No, I don't really care. I think I would have liked to have Jenson, of course, because he's someone who has proven himself at the front in Formula One. And that's what you always want, is some to compare yourself to at the highest level. But we also have drivers now which are testing over the (northern) winter that we know are very quick, they have proven themselves Anthony and Nick and Antonio, of course, have always been quick at certain stages. But it's about being quicker over the course of a season, so we will see what happens over the winter.

And it does seem to be that that test run later in the year with Pizzonia and Heidfeld and Anthony Davidson … is your expectation that your teammate will come from one of those three?
MW: I assume so, yes. I'm very confident that one of those three guys will probably be my teammate next year. I don't think there's anyone else coming out of the woodwork to upstage any of those three.