Driver In Focus: Mark Webber
Mark Webber was born on the 27thof August 1976 in Queanbeyan , Australia.
He started his relationship with sport at a young age, working as a ball boy for premiership winning rugby league team, the Canberra Raiders, during the late 1980s. However, motorsport was where his interest lay, later listing Formula One World Champion Alain Prost and Grand Prix motorcycle racer Kevin Schwantz as his childhood heroes.
Starting out racing motorcycles, Webber moved to four wheels in 1991, taking up karting at the age of 14. He won the New South Wales state championship in 1993, and moved straight into the Australian Formula Ford Championship after his father bought him an ex-Craig Lowndes Van Diemen FF1600.
Working as a driving instructor at Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway between races, Webber finished 14th overall in his debut season. Continuing in the series in 1995, Webber scored several victories, including a win in the support race for the Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. He finished the series in fourth place but, perhaps more importantly, teamed up with Championship coordinator Ann Neal, who secured him a seven-year sponsorship with Australian Yellow Pages, and would become his manager and accompany him on a trip to England in an attempt to start a career in Europe.
Webber had just turned 18 when he left Australia at the end of 1995 after competing in karting and the Australian Formula Ford championship. An impressive international debut, which saw him finish third in the 1995 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in England, prompted the famous Van Diemen Formula Ford team to sign him for the 1996 British Championship.
Webber finished runner-up in that series and scored a crushing victory at the 1996 Formula Ford Festival.Following success in British Formula Ford, Webber graduated to the British Formula 3 Championship in 1997 with a team run by countryman Alan Docking. He finished fourth in the series despite struggling to find the necessary budget and was almost forced to quit mid-season when his funding ran out.
However, fellow Queanbeyanite and former Wallabies rugby union legend, David Campese, came to the rescue and personally financed Webber’s next few races which continued to yield good results. Before long, his strong performances in the British series and international F3 events had attracted the attention of Mercedes boss Norbert Haug, who invited Webber to test for the Mercedes AMG sportscar team.
The test was a success and Webber signed with the team to compete in the 1998 FIA GT Championship, partnering former F1 driver Bernd Schneider. The 1998 season was a memorable one, with a huge test program and ten-round championship which took Webber to the United States, Japan and Europe. The Webber/Schneider combination took five wins but was pipped to the title by team-mates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta.
Webber was promoted to his own car in 1999 but his love of sportscars came to a premature end when he was involved in two spectacular, high-speed accidents at the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hour Race. An apparent aerodynamic fault with the design of the Mercedes caused the cars of Webber and team-mate Peter Dumbreck to somersault, leaving Mercedes to withdraw its remaining car from the race and the curtailment of its 1999 sportscar campaign.
Indeed, although sidelined for the remainder of 1999 Webber was determined to get his single-seater career back on track for the following season. He began working towards a drive in the international Formula 3000 championship with Paul Stoddart’s new European Formula Racing team after being introduced to Stoddart by then F1 team owner, Eddie Jordan.In 2000 Webber contested the FIA International F3000 Championship. He took the EFR team to new highs with victory in round two of the series at Silverstone to take an unexpected early lead in the championship.
Ultimately, he ended the season third overall in the drivers’ championship behind Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian.
His results earned him the interest of Benetton and in September 2000 he completed a successful three day test for the team at Estoril. This led to the team signing Webber on a long-term contract, and for the 2001 season he was contracted by Benetton to race for Super Nova Racing in Formula 3000, as well as being the official test and reserve driver for the F1 team.
In 2001, Webber scored wins at Imola, Monaco and Magny Cours and finished runner-up in the F3000 series while also testing with Benetton. Webber completed the long haul to F1 in 2002 when he joined the Minardi team. In his debut race in front of home fans, Webber drove the PS02 to fifth place and two points. No further points were forthcoming over the season but his performances didn’t go unnoticed, especially by team bosses at Jaguar Racing who snapped up Webber to partner Antonio Pizzonia the following season.
He became the first Australian since David Brabham in 1994 to race in Formula One and made his Grand Prix debut in front of his home crowd at Melbourne’s Albert Park in 2002.
The Australian had a good season with Jaguar in 2003; scoring 17 of the 18 points amassed by the Milton Keynes-based team but 2004 was not a good year. The team announced it was for sale mid-season and the Jaguar R5 was not the huge step forward the team had hoped for. Still, Webber did a solid job for much of the season, especially in qualifying trim. The Malaysian Grand Prix saw Webber start second alongside Michael Schumacher but in what characterised much of a frustrating season, Webber spun out of contention on race day.
Frank Williams had had an eye on Webber for some time and it was therefore of little surprise that he joined Nick Heidfeld in the BMW powered team in 2005. The Australian endured another tough season however and while sensational in qualifying trim, all too often tripped up and failed to score points when it counted. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld was far more consistent and Webber would score just one podium position – his first – at the Monaco Grand Prix and finish tenth in the overall standings.
Webber remained with Williams in 2006 and was joined by rising star Nico Rosberg. Webber generally held the upper hand throughout the season, but it was a frustrating year with a relatively uncompetitive Williams Cosworth package. The team soldiered on, but mid-season Webber announced he was on the move to Red Bull Racing for 2007. Webber finished the season a disappointing 14th in the standings.
Teaming up with David Coulthard at Red Bull Renault, Webber showed flashes of raw speed culminating in a podium position at Nurburgring. However, the RB3 package was notoriously unreliable and race after race hydraulic issues would sideline the Australian. Webber scored ten points over the season and was 12th in the championship standings. Webber remained with the team in 2008 and dominated team-mate Coulthard on his way to 21 points and 11th overall.
Now a Formula One veteran, Webber faces a stiff challenge at Red Bull Renault in 2009 as Sebastian Vettel joins the team from the Toro Rosso Ferrari team.
