Mark Webber says Red Bull needs to improve the RB8's pace in qualifying because it is hurting its race chances.

15959 - Red Bull needs to improve - Webber

Having had a dominant qualifying car in recent seasons - taking 33 of 38 poles on offer in 2010 and 2011 - Red Bull has only secured four pole positions so far this year and has not managed to get two cars in to Q3 since the German Grand Prix. Webber was the driver to miss out this weekend as he qualified 11th at Monza and when asked if he was surprised by how tough it had been for Red Bull he replied: "Yeah a little bit.

"We probably thought it was going to be a bit of a challenge off the back of Spa which was also not the easiest Saturday for us. Obviously the penalty didn't help for me, qualifying seventh and having to go back. But in general we see seventh for me in Spa, sixth for Seb today; it's the maximum the car can do on Saturday."

While insisting he was pleased with his personal performance in qualifying at Monza, Webber said Red Bull needs to improve as a whole.

"It was very close for me to go through to Q3, I was very happy with my lap. A tenth or so between a lot of guys there in that window and ultimately it wasn't quite enough. We need to improve qualifying, we know that. Everybody's asking 'What's the problem?' Well if we knew the problem we would fix it. In previous years it was a very big part of our armoury and at the moment we know we need to improve on it, because there's no point in us having strong Sunday's when we're always recovering."

Webber added that he would still be looking to take advantage of any opportunities in the race as a number of drivers have had problems this season.

"I'm looking forward to the race, but I'm not looking forward to the formation lap to see how many cars are in front of me; that's what p****s me off but in the end that's the way it as. It's another opportunity for us to redeem something and go from there because we know there's lots of people who don't have smooth days these days - like Fernando as well, and JB's had plenty of tough ones and Lewis has had a few - and it's just the way it is at the moment, so I've got to keep boxing."