Mark Webber

Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber last night ended all of the rumours circulating the pit paddock and announced he will be moving from the Infiniti Red Bull Racing team to be apart of Porsche’s World Endurance Championship sportscar program.

We can’t ignore the fact that Webber and his young German teammate Sebastian Vettel did not get along like a house on fire, but this was not a considering factor of why the Australian decided to leave the sport.

The 36-year-old believed it was perfect timing to join Porsche’s program, as he believes it is a sensational challenge and the perfect timing for his future work.

With Webber announcing this ground-shaking news, I thought it was time that I’d look at the highlights of the Aussie’s racing career and how it all started.

It all began in 1991, when Mark started racing sprint go-karts around Australia competing against some great names in Australian motorsport. It was only a few years later in 1994 when Webber started racing in open-wheelers.

Formula Ford in Australia in the mid-nineties was the lead way for young Australian drivers who wanted to further their motor racing career.

Mark Webber in his Formula Ford

Mark Webber then struggled with funds for his racing, going over to the UK with virtually no money. Webber raced at the prestigious Formula Ford Festival in 1995 at the Brands Hatch circuit, finishing an astonishing third place on debut.

The 19-year-old at the time was then offered a factory drive with Van Diemen to compete in the European and British Formula Ford championships. Webber went on to win the 1996 British Formula Ford festival that year, which in many cases was known to be a gateway for Formula 1.

After competing in Formula Ford for three years, Webber graduated to Formula 3000 with Alan Docking Racing for the 1997 championship in Europe. Without having a stronger financial backing like Webber and his team had in the Formula Ford season, Webber and the team nearly had to pull out of racing the category halfway through. Fortunately an Australian personal investor came on board and financially helped Webber out.

Webber was approached at the end of his Formula 3 campaign by Mercedes-AMG to compete in a sports car race. He traveled all around the world racing at Japan, Europe and the United States, but his sports car career came to an early end after an aerodynamic fault, which caused Webber to go airborne and flip twice in practice for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Webber escaped without injury, but this ended the Mercedes campaign and saw Webber return to open-wheel racing.

Mark Webber’s aerodynamic failure at Le Mans

Webber made his first steps in Formula 1 in 1999, testing for Arrows F1 team. It wasn’t until 2002 when Mark made his debut racing in Formula 1, where he was teamed up with Minardi Asiatech. Webber impressed on his debut, racing at his home Australian Grand Prix. He qualified 18^th for the race, but managed to climb his way through the field to grab fifth place, claiming the first ever points for the Minardi Asiatech team.

2009 marked an important year when Webber was racing for Red Bull that Webber qualified on pole for the first time in Formula 1 at the Nüburgring. This was the first time an Australian driver had claimed pole position since Alan Jones back in 1980. He went on to achieve his first Formula 1 victory despite receiving a drive through penalty early in the race for causing an avoidable collision at the start. Webber went on to dominate the race and win ahead of his teammate Vettel, heading a Red Bull 1–2.

Mark Webber’s debut in Formula 1 finishing in fifth

After the German Grand Prix, Webber was ready to take charge in the championship campaign for 2010, having great success in the season taking victories at the Spanish, Monaco and Hungarian Grand Prix’s. Webber unfortunately lost the championship battle to his younger teammate Sebastian Vettel, but finished in third place.

As the tension grew between Vettel and Webber at Red Bull, Webber was determined to go better in 2011. The Australian had to wait all year to claim victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but remained consistent throughout the year to claim third place in the driver’s championship.

After coming so close the previous year’s before for the championship title, Webber in 2012 won the British and Monaco Grand Prix’s, which he claims to this day are his sweetest victories.

Webber this year haven’t yet claimed a race victory and is currently sixth in the championship, so it was very interesting to find out that he announced the end of his Formula 1 campaign. He has come so close, yet for the 36-year-old other plans have come in the way and the Aussie believes Porsches is the way to go.

Mark Webber celebrating at Monaco in 2012

Despite having a huge crash at Le Man’s many years ago in his AMG-Mercedes, Webber believes he can overcome his fear of racing at Le Mans and give it a red hot go.

All the best to Webber and his sports car career, it will be sad to see an Australian leave the sport who has brought much joy to the Formula 1 paddock and will be sadly missed.

– Let’s see if our young Aussie driver at Toro Rosso Daniel Ricciardo can take his seat at Red Bull Racing!

Published on: http://www.spultured.com

Last night’s Monaco Grand Prix not only delivered a two-hour race of the Formula 1 cars screaming down the streets of Monte Carlo, but saw Nico Rosberg take his first victory at the circuit, 30 years after his father Keke Rosberg claimed victory there, becoming the first father-son duo to ever win a race.

The race was full of wheel-to-armco action, but Rosberg stayed out in front of the pack for the entire grand prix, keeping the same form he had all weekend being quickest in practice and qualifying.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel struggled with his pace and finished second behind the fellow German, although he did still manage to set the fastest lap of the race, pushing it on his soft compound tyres. Vettel’s Australian team mate Mark Webber followed the same pit strategy and crossed the line in third.

The start showed just why Rosberg and Hamilton were on the front row, with the Renault Red Bull’s unfortunately not being able to jump the two Mercedes at the start of the race,

The front of the field were behaving themselves, while a few places back the McLaren boys were at it again. Sergio Perez make life hard for Jenson Button, who tried everything to get past his team mate, with Button complaining about Perez cutting him off when trying for a pass.

There was also damage for Van De Garde and Maldonado, with Van De Garde hitting the Williams of Maldonado through the chicane.

The racing was tight, by lap 7 the top six were only separated by 5.5 seconds, and with the newly formulated Pirelli tyres, the strategy for most teams was a two-stop race.

Mark Webber was first to pit out of the front-runners on lap 25, with Kimi Raikkonen pitting one lap later, which was early considering the team at Lotus were using a one-stop strategy for the 78 lap duration.

Sebastian Vettel then made his pit stop, while Felipe Massa managed to hit the wall in the same place he did in practice, which saw the Ferrari driver unable to register a qualifying time. At this point, the Mercedes drivers had not made their first pit stop.

The Mercedes team then decided to pit their two front-running drivers, but this unfortunately hurt Hamilton, who was “leap-frogged” by the two Red Bull cars and fell back to fourth.

Because of the damage caused to Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, for the first time this season the safety car was on the circuit. Massa was attended by the medics but was later taken to hospital due to whiplash.

After nine laps of the safety car, the race was restarted. Hamilton was desperate for his two spots back and was trying all his moves on Aussie Webber. Raikkonen was also super defensive on Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

It was only four laps later until another racing incident occurred. Bianchi squeezed Maldonado out into the air and then into the wall. The wall was too damaged to bring out another safety car and debris was all over the track, so the race was red flagged and all the drivers were sent to the starting grid.

In this situation, drivers are allowed to get out of their cars, talk with their engineers, grab a drink and mechanics are also allowed to work on their racing cars. During the break the stewards also decided that Fernando Alonso should give back a spot to Sergio Perez, where Perez tried making a pass on Alonso through the chicane.

With the race on the verge of two hours and twenty minutes, drivers had to make their way through the race quickly to make it through the 78-lap duration. The restart saw Rosberg get a great jump on Vettel, with Mark Webber defending his third position well on Lewis Hamilton.

Lap 60 saw another retirement of the race, with Bianchi locking up and going sideways into turn one.

Two laps later, another safety car was called and it was Grosjean who striked again, taking out Australian Daniel Ricciardo by riding the back of his Torro Rosso. Both of the drivers failed to finish the grand prix.

The race then restarted and all of the drivers were hungry for the top position. Rosberg stayed out of trouble to take the win, with Sebastian Vettel following in second. Last year’s race winner Mark Webber managed to hold off Hamilton to take third.

Quiet achiever from Force India Adrian Sutil took out fifth place, with Jenson Button rounding out the top six. Raikkonen dropped from fifth to 16th with seven laps remaining after coming together with Perez, but still managed to sneak inside the top ten.

Media by Loren Hazelwood

Motor sport media, marketing and content specialist

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