Webber on Le Mans: "I think about beating the race, not our rivals"

The Australian is relishing the prospect of trying to conquer La Sarthe on his fifth attempt, having taken the runner-up spot alongside teammates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley last year.

"I'm pumped about what we can do with the car and our team," Webber told Motorsport.com. "That sounds boring, but I have the feeling this year won't be too boring over the full 24 Hours!

"There's the weather, there's stress, backmarkers, and around here no lap is the same.

"There are so many factors you have to be in control of around this place. On the whole, we feel good about all the hard work we have achieved in preparation for this. Now we have to go out and earn it."

But, Webber believes that the race itself is a more persistent foe than any direct rival.

"F1 was a lot more individual, a lot more intense, but when I come to Le Mans, I don't think about Audi and Toyota too much," he added. "I think about us against the race.

"If we beat the race I think we will get the right result. I don't think about beating [Andre] Lotterer, or Audi.

"If we do what we need to do, don't have too many issues, then the rest will take care of itself."

Speaking about losing out to the #19 Porsche crew of Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy last year, Webber said he felt the disappointment hit his teammates harder than him.

"I think it was probably a bit harder for Timo and Brendon, especially Brendon," said Webber. "When you're younger, you don't have as much resilience to deal with adversity.

"I was disappointed of course, but I've had tougher moments in my career, so I was very philosophical about the result. 

"Second place in Le Mans is still not too bad. We have another chance - and here we are."

WEC future "quandary"

Asked about his thoughts on the general state of sportscar racing and the FIA World Endurance Championship, Webber said: "I love the camaraderie with the teammates.

"I think that's great at this point of your career when you're an older driver, it's really good fun to share the cars with the drivers. That's super enjoyable.

"Another thing I love is the technology, the cars are super quick, they're safe, they've got the balance right there, particularly in LMP1.

"One thing I would just keep an eye on is just the level of driver calibre in these type of races. We just need to make sure we're on that, in terms of the threshold for the ability to get a licence."

However, the Australian said that the danger is that the level of technology becomes so sophisticated that it puts off prospective new entrants from joining the series.

"At the moment the messaging [of the WEC] is authentic and real," he said. "The amount of fuel we use is a lot less than F1 and how we have and how we use the systems on the car is impressive.

"The corner speeds are very high, you probably wouldn't want them getting much too higher in the future just because of the limitations of how quickly we can go through them.

"With manufacturers, if it's too old school and too much of a gimmick, they will shy away from that.

"So it's a fine line how people can come in now and still compete. It's a real quandary actually."