F1 Driver Profile: Mark Webber
Mark Alan Webber was born on 27 August 1976 in New South Wales, Australia. Interestingly, Mark was the son of a motorcycle dealer which is why he started motorcycle racing at a young age. Soon, he moved to four-wheel racing in 1991 at the age of 14 when he began carting. He used to work as a ball boy for the premiership winning Rugby team Canberra Raiders in the late 80’s. His favourite driver was Formula 1 driver was Alan Prost.
At this young age, the Australian started to show off his talent when won the New South Wales State Championship in 1993 and moved to the Australian Formula Ford Championship. After being able to secure the 14th place in his debut season, Webber scored several wins in 1995 including the win at the support race for the Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. Webber finished 4th this season and signed with Ann Neal who secured him a seven-year sponsorship with Yellow Pages and accompanied him as his manager on a trip to England to proceed in his career.
Webber proceeded to race in Europe in various forms of the sport and made quite an impression on his fans after scoring many wins. These included wins at Melbourne and Spa Francorchamps. He was voted as the “Young Achiever” and “International Achiever” in 1996 by Australian Motorsports. The Australian completed a successful test for Alan Docking Racing and was signed by the team to graduate to Formula 3 in 1997 - two days after his festival victory. Webber barely completed the season when Ford plunged into a financial crisis.
As a result, Mark went into over drive by winning in only his fourth race followed by four podium finishes. Webber signed with Mercedes AMG as their junior driver for the Formula GT Championship after he impressed the team with his drive at the A1-Ring in Austria. The team came second in the overall standings after losing to teammates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta by just 8 seconds in the last race. Mark Webber stayed with the team but was not able to finish in a good position after his accident on the Mulsanne straight during practice for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Both drivers escaped injury and Webber had to reconsider his future in open wheel racing.
Webber joined Eurobet Arrows Formula 3000 team for 2000 and got his first taste of a Formula 1 car after a two day test run with team Arrows F1 at Barcelona in 1999. Due to his fantastic driving skills, Mark signed with Arrows F1 as their test driver in 2000. During this time, the Australian won his first race in the second round of the F3 season and ended at the third spot in the drivers’ standings. He was offered a three-day evaluation test by Benetton at the end of the year after outpacing F1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella at Estoril. The results impressed the team which resulted in a contract for the entire 2001 season.
Mark Webber started driving as a regular driver in the Formula 1 after signing with Minardi in 2002. The Australian impressed the spectators after he scored an amazing 5th place in his very first season - keeping in mind that Minardi was not in a good shape. This earned him a place in team Jaguar for the next year and Webber maintained his performance by scoring a total of 17 points in the drivers’ standings. The 33-year-old stayed with the team for another year before joining Williams in 2004. The Australian scored his first podium in the Formula 1 this year and scored a total of 36 points, securing the 10th place for him in the drivers’ standings. After 2006, Webber left Williams and joined Red Bull for the 2007 season. Mark struggled for 2 years but later proved that he was better than that. Webber clinched 2 wins, 8 podiums and 3 pole positions to score 69.5 points to secure the 4th position in the drivers’ standings in the season. Mark is currently leading the Championship and is in perfect shape to win the drivers’ championship. He has scored a total of 4 wins, 6 podiums and 4 poles to secure 161 points. The Australian is only 4 points ahead of British driver Lewis Hamilton but believes that this will be his year.
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