Mark Webber

- Published on Dec 24th, 2010 by The Badger

Life Before F1
Get this: Mark Webber never won a junior racing championship. Well, maybe in karts, but certainly never in cars. Crazy. Australian Formula Ford was followed by the British variety before a move to F3 in 1997. He then made the unconventional switch to GT and sportscar racing in '98/99 before returning to the F1 path with Formula 3000. He impressed: third in 2000 followed by runner-up in 2001 (by which time he'd secured the support of Flavio Briatore) put his name on the map, and helped him win a Minardi drive for 2002.

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F1 Career
Webber's F1 career got off to the best possible start with a stunning fifth place finish at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix - in a Minardi. He continued to perform well at the Italian squad for the remainder of the year and was duly rewarded with a Jaguar drive in 2003.

But, though he generally impressed during his two seasons with Jag, the team never game Webber a car capable of challenging the front-runners. In two seasons he scored 25 points (more than half of the total that the team registered in their five years in F1) but never finished a race higher than sixth. A front row start at Malaysia 2004 was a highlight, but that quickly went wrong as he got a poor getaway and eventually spun out 23 laps in. On the plus side he was always on top of his team-mates and left the team with his reputation still strong.

He then joined Williams, a move that was supposed to be a match made in heaven but turned out to be a false dawn. He scored his first podium at Monaco 2005 but was eventually out-performed by team-mate Nick Heidfeld over the season. 2006 was a nightmare - just seven points in what was Williams worst year since 1978 - and he left at the end of the year.

For 2007 he joined David Coulthard at Red Bull (born from the ashes of his former employers Jaguar), but he surely couldn't have known what a shrewd decision this was at the time. He was solid in his first two years - he scored a podium in '07 and was a consistent points scorer in '08 - before things really came good in 2009. Despite suffering a number of injuries in a pre-season mountain bike accident - the worst a broken leg - Webber gradually picked up form as the season progressed, winning his first Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. A run of five races without a point ended his slim title hopes, but he ended the season well with a win in Brazil and second in Abu Dhabi. At 33 his career had finally taken off.

2010 was Webber's best yet, with dominant wins in Spain and Monaco confirming his ability to beat the very best of his F1 rivals. Further wins in Britain and Hungary left him leading the title as F1 took its summer break, and more solid results in Belgium (second), Singapore (third) and Japan (second) made him championship favourite. However a mistake in the heavy rain of Korea saw him crash out and surrender his lead to Fernando Alonso. Webber recovered with second in Brazil but a flat performance in Abu Dhabi allowed team-mate Vettel to take the title. Nevertheless, Webber has shown he can compete at the highest level of the sport and will surely continue to be a threat for wins in the 2011 Red Bull.

And another thing...

• Mark has a pet llama at his Buckinghamshire home. How many other F1 drivers can say that?
• He holds the record for contesting the most races before scoring his first win, having finally broken his duck at the 130th attempt.
• His early career was supported by rugby player David Campese