"I am happy to have a bit of luck now because I have had more than my fair share of misfortunes," RBR star insists. "For me to get more points because of someone else's misfortune never bothers me whatsoever."

Despite his stellar start to the 2008 Formula 1 campaign - with 15 points placing him 'best of the rest' behind the top three teams' drivers - Mark Webber is insistent that Red Bull Racing is not ready to fight for the podium yet, even if he does acknowledges that, right now, 'the car and the team feel just right'.

The Aussie has in the past been somewhat notable for his chronic ill-fortune, losing innumerable points through the poor reliability of his machinery and being deprived of what could possibly have been his maiden grand prix victory at Fuji last year when he was punted out of second place by Scuderia Toro Rosso rookie Sebastian Vettel under safety car conditions.

The 2008 season, however, seems to have provided a new dawn for RBR, and Webber is clearly reaping the benefits of it.

"The key to what we did was over the winter," the 31-year-old underlined in an interview with the official Formula 1 website. "They made some good technical decisions on how to design the car and placed a strong focus on reliability. To solve the reliability is a big thing; it gives you momentum in testing and on race weekends.

"These results are the fruits of everybody's efforts - from Christian [Horner - team principal] down. It's good to see that we are getting some rewards from those efforts and those decisions, but what we need to do is to develop the car - to put performance on the car as soon as possible. That's a problem that all the teams are facing now, though. The car has a good base and we need to continue to develop it."

Indeed, the renowned qualifying specialist has five times lined up inside the top ten on the grid in the opening seven grands prix this year, with an average starting position of 9.4 and out-pointing his more experienced team-mate David Coulthard on all-but one occasion - that one occasion coming cruelly in front of his partisan supporters in the Melbourne curtain-raiser Down Under, after brake failure stymied his efforts on home soil.

From there he has notched up points-scoring finishes five races in succession - with the undoubted highlight being fourth place around the narrow, tortuous streets of Monaco a fortnight ago - but he acknowledged the need for Coulthard to get himself on the board too if RBR is to see off the challenges of Renault, Williams and Toyota for what would be a best-yet fourth position in the constructors' standings come season's end.

"I am very satisfied with that and I hope I can continue to stay that way," he said of his current seventh position in the drivers' table. "It would be really, really rewarding to achieve that - to have a 'tight' fight with Fernando [Alonso], and Williams can be very quick at times as well.

"In a race like [Monaco] it's best not to take too many risks, and that is exactly what I did. A lot of other people made mistakes, but that's part of a grand prix.

"I am happy to have a bit of luck now because I have had more than my fair share of misfortunes, so I'm not bothered to see Kimi [Raikkonen] crashing into [Adrian] Sutil because I've been in that situation before. For me to get more points because of someone else's misfortune never bothers me whatsoever.

"We have a long season ahead and to be equal with Heikki [Kovalainen] after six races is rewarding, as is being five points behind Nick Heidfeld. It's been a pretty good start for me and I hope we can continue - that's all I hope for. We are not going to score points at every race - that's not going to happen - but I hope that we can continue to score points whenever they are available.

"There have been quite a few races that have not turned out so well for David, but I am sure it will turn around quite shortly. Hopefully this weekend it will already turn around for him - and the team - and he will be able to challenge for points.

"The only reason why it is a surprise is that we all know David can do it, and I hope that we can both capitalise on Nelson [Piquet] having a bit of a hard time, and also [Timo] Glock. [Kazuki] Nakajima is doing an excellent job for Williams, so we need two cars operating to capitalise against Fernando and Nico [Rosberg]."

Webber has already made very clear his desire to remain at the Milton Keynes-based outfit beyond the expiry of his current contract at the end of this year, and on current form the team would be hard-pressed not to offer him a new deal.

As to more immediate objectives, though he insists a rostrum finish is out of reach for the moment, with Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve cracking up in the heat this weekend, the Canadian Grand Prix could turn out to be just the type of 'crazy race' to which he alludes…

"We have a pretty good idea what challenges we face here," he affirmed. "Montreal is a good circuit, but everybody knows that it's hard on brakes, that you need to use the kerbs and that the safety car can also play a role here. Hopefully we will be lucky, not have any problems with the safety car, have a good race and continue our point-scoring finishes.

"That's the most important thing for us. Podiums are still incredibly hard to come by because you need crazy races - like we had in Monaco - where we got fourth, but we also need to continue to qualify well, continue to race well and hopefully end up in the points. At the moment the car and the team feel just right, and we have to continue with that development.

"I am keen to continue here as I see a good progression. I love driving for Red Bull and I have a massive respect for how Dietrich [Mateschitz - Red Bull magnate and team owner] runs the whole operation, and naturally it helps when you get results so it's a good feeling at the factory. I'd like to be part of that in the future, so hopefully we can do something together."