A detailed look at the profile of Australian Formula 1 driver Mark Webber
Mark Webber is one of those drivers who can claim to have reached Formula 1 on the might of their abilities with a very little financial support at any stage of their careers.
Mark has scored 669.5 championship points in his F1 career but has not won any world championship title yet.
Mark made his debut in junior kart racing just at the age of 15 at national level. In 1992, he won the New South Wales State Karting Championship. Mark made his debut in Formula Ford in 1994 and became famous due to some of his notable performances. He finally
won the Formula Ford Championship in 1996. In the same year, in British Formula Ford, Mark was the runner up while driving for Van Diemen.
In 1996, Mark’s accomplishments made him Australia’s ‘International Achiever’ and ‘Young Achiever’ in motorsport. In the following year, Mark moved to Formula 3 and took five podiums. In 1999, Mark along with Peter Dumbreck tumbled their cars during the
race severely but hopefully none of them was injured.
In 2000, Mark with Eurobet Arrows team stood third in FIA International Formula 3000 championship. The position was improved in the following year and Mark was the runner up in Formula 3000 Championship.
In 2002, Mark made his debut in Formula 1 with Minardi. He scored fifth place in his first race ever which made an impressive impact on his performance throughout the season. In 2003, he cemented his reputation as a rising star in Formula 1 and took third
place on the grid in Brazil and was tenth in the drivers’ championship.
Mark had a difficult season with Jaguar in 2004 and he scored seven out of the team’s 10 points. He signed a contract with Williams for the next year. In 2005 due to lack of competitiveness of Williams his race performance was not consistent. After having
a tough season with Williams, Mark went to Red Bull Racing in 2007.
First season at Red Bull was quite frustrating due to poor reliability and the usual top ten qualifying performances hardly translated into points. However, Mark stood third at Nurburgring and finished 12th overall with 10 points in the championship.
In 2008, Mark secured Red Bull’s first ever front row grid slot at Silverstone Circuit and retained it in 2009.
In 2009, Sebastian Vettel joined Red Bull as Mark’s teammate. Mark broke his leg in a cycling accident due to which preparations in the pre-season were hindered. This led him to finishing fourth in the drivers’ championship.
In 2010, Mark moved ahead of Vettel with ultra-fast RB6 and secured victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. However, he finished third overall after failing to secure a win in the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Despite the dominance of Red
Bull in 2011, Mark again finished third overall. He was completely outpaced by his teammate Vettel and won only the Brazilian Grand Prix in which Vettel faced some technical issues.
In 2012, will feature for Red Bull for another year which made it his fourth season in partnership with his teammate, Vettel.
Being in Red Bull for the upcoming season of 2012 seems to be the last season of Mark Webber’s F1 career and even his rivals have pushed him to take a fight to Vettel. Let’s see how this season turns out to be for him.
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