Webber added another race victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as he once again finished third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button. Webber partnered Vettel again in the season, outperforming him in the early season and looked to be a major title contender but fell away with no wins in the second half of the season after two in the Monaco and British Grand Prix. He finished the season in sixth position. On 27 June , Webber announced he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season.
The trio race with the 1 on their car in After his retirement from F1 Webber joined the BBC F1 team as an occasional pundit and reporter from — and has joined the Channel 4 F1 Team in the UK for their coverage in as a full-time pundit. On 13 October , Webber announced that he would retire from driving at the end of the season in order to take up a representative role with Porsche and to focus on media roles with Channel 4's coverage of F1 and WEC.
The Australian has called on the category to embrace the rivalry between the two star drivers, and the growing tension between the Mercedes and Red Bull squads off the back of the controversial first-lap clash at Silverstone. Vettel endured a difficult first race weekend with the team since confirmation of his impending exit in Austria, which included missing Q3 on Saturday and then a 10th place finish on Sunday following a clumsy clash with Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari announced last month that four-time world champion Vettel would be leaving the team at the end of the season, bringing to an end a six-season spell at Maranello.
A move to Mercedes looks unlikely, while other vacant seats would require him to drop into the midfield. Mark Webber enjoyed a long, largely-successful Formula 1 career that came to an end in , but one in which he just fell short of becoming world champion.
Williams quickly elected to promote current test driver Alexander Wurz to a race seat. Williams team boss Sir Frank Williams stated that he was reluctant to wait for Webber to commit to the team once the option for future years had expired, though he did not blame Webber for waiting to see if there was a seat available at another team.
After some speculation of Webber joining the Renault team, which was run by Briatore, it was announced on 7 August that Webber would join Red Bull Racing for to partner David Coulthard, replacing former Jaguar Racing teammate Christian Klien.
It is rumoured that Briatore arranged an agreement with Red Bull that, if they offered Webber a race seat, Renault would supply them with engines.
The car featured heavy revisions to the team's previous cars and looked very much like designer Adrian Newey's previous cars which had either won or come close to the World Title. The car was fitted with a Renault RS27 engine. There were consecutive retirements in Canada, where he was hit by Klien, and the United States where he suffered an oil leak.
A change of luck gained him a 9th-place finish in the French Grand Prix and preceded a further championship point in the British Grand Prix; although his total of 4 points compared unfavourably with the 12 scored by the same time in the previous season.
It was at this stage that former teammate Pizzonia returned to racing as a replacement for the injured Ralf Schumacher and accused Jaguar of favouritism towards Webber during their time as teammates saying that Webber received new car parts one or two races before Pizzonia.
The claims were categorically denied by Jaguar boss David Pitchforth, and whilst Webber did not publicly comment on the situation at the time he had his best result of the season finishing sixth in the German Grand Prix, running ahead of Pizzonia for the entire race. Meanwhile, reports emerged that Jaguar could not guarantee that they would compete in Formula One for the season and on 28 July, it was announced that Webber would drive for WilliamsF1 for and beyond.
He would later admit this was the team that his "heart was always set on". Webber was unable to build on his points tally, however, and 10th place in Hungary followed by a first-lap accident in Belgium with 9th in Italy and 10th in China saw him sitting 13th in the Championship.
Webber was granted an early release from his Jaguar contract to be allowed to test with his new team, Williams, over the winter. Williams had announced that Jenson Button would drive for the team in alongside Webber but, after claims that Button was still contracted to BAR, his contract with Williams was overturned.
With his new teammate undecided and going down to a "shootout" between Nick Heidfeld and Pizzonia, Webber hit back at Pizzonia's claims of unfair treatment during , claiming the Brazilian was lying and saying he was a "loser" for believing that there was favouritism towards Webber, comments which led to a reprimand from his new team. Heidfeld was finally announced as Webber's teammate at the Williams season launch on 31 January, with Webber admitting he was pleased with the eventual decision.
Expectations were high as Webber's former team boss Paul Stoddart predicted Webber would take his first victory in while Williams technical director Sam Michael said Webber would eventually win the World Championship with Williams. The final two races of the season saw Webber take 4th and 7th to consolidate his 10th place in the Drivers' Championship. Webber described the season as "frustrating" and acknowledged that his reputation had somewhat diminished but opted to stay on with Williams despite an offer from BMW Sauber.
Webber's teammate for would be German Nico Rosberg, becoming the seventh driver to partner Webber since Webber finished the season in 11th place in the Drivers' Championship with a total of 21 points, his most successful season after at Williams at that point in time. Although Wilson scored a point in the United States Grand Prix, Webber had still never been outqualified by a teammate and, late in the year, Jaguar announced that rookie Christian Klien would team up with Webber for the season.
Webber's results again earned him plaudits in the press, winning the "Driver of the Year" award from Autocar magazine. Continuing with Jaguar in , Webber qualified sixth for the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, but faced his second consecutive retirement from his home race, this time as a result of a gearbox failure. At the following race, the Malaysian Grand Prix, Webber produced the best qualifying performance of his career up to that point by splitting the dominant Ferraris to line up second on the grid.
The race was less rewarding with a near-stall at the start meaning he was well outside the top 10 by the time the cars reached turn 1. An aggressive lap saw him move up to ninth place but during an exciting battle with Ralf Schumacher, they collided, forcing Webber to pit with damage to his front wing and tyre. In his desperation to make up for the lost time, Webber exceeded the pitlane speed limit and was handed a drive-through penalty which left him even further behind.
More frustration eventually led to the end of his race as he spun into the gravel trap on the outside of the final corner on lap The Italian Grand Prix saw Pizzonia driving to seventh whilst Webber was caught up in a first-corner incident which led to him finishing 14th. The roles were reversed for the following race in Belgium as Webber finished in fourth place and Pizzonia retired after a collision with Juan Pablo Montoya in the closing laps.
With rumours spreading that Heidfeld had in fact signed with BMW Sauber for the season, Pizzonia continued in the race seat, and in the Brazilian Grand Prix, was clipped by David Coulthard in turn one.
The contact caused Pizzonia to spin into the path of Webber forcing extensive repairs to the Australian's car. Webber took 17th place, setting the 8th fastest lap of the race, but was not classified as a finisher. With Webber's switch from Jaguar to Williams at the end of , the challenge was postponed until , when he was able to secure a three-year deal with the Tasmanian Government to hold the event.
The event now named the "Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge" was held over six days and covered nearly km. In November , Webber organised and competed in a day trek across Tasmania to raise funds for children's cancer research charities. Starting in Marrawah on the state's west coast, the trek involved 1, km of cycling, kayaking and trekking along the southern coast and finished at Coles Bay in the east. Four teams of four competitors each started the trek, with only two teams including Webber's completing the entire journey.
The challenge concluded with a black tie dinner and auction to raise funds. Webber said he was driven to organise the event after the death of his grandfather to cancer, as well as his experiences with friends whose children had battled the disease.
Webber made his Formula One debut in , scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. After his first season, Jaguar took him on as lead driver. During two years with the generally uncompetitive team, Webber qualified on the front two rows of the grid several times and outperformed his teammates.
By the end of , Webber had scored eight podiums, including another victory in Brazil. His eight podiums in compares with only two podiums in the first seven years of his career. He added ten more podiums in , including victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Webber finished the season in third place having led for a long period, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final race of the season. Webber added another race victory in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as he once again finished third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button.
Webber partnered Vettel again in the season, outperforming him in the early season and looked to be a major title contender but fell away with no wins in the second half of the season after two in the Monaco and British Grands Prix. The latter win turned out to be his final Grand Prix victory. He finished the season in sixth position.
In his first race for the team, the Australian Grand Prix, Webber took 3rd on the grid but was beaten to the first corner by David Coulthard and eventually finished the race in fifth which finally matched his effort with Minardi in ' His best chance to do so though came in the following race in Malaysia. After qualifying fourth, Webber was defending third position having overtaken the Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella at turn An optimistic Fisichella who was struggling due to a lack of downforce and tyre grip slip streamed Webber on the back straight and attempted a counter-pass down the inside of turn Unfortunately, Fisichella locked his brakes and slid into the side of Webber's car, eliminating both drivers from the race.
This allowed Heidfeld to inherit third place and Fisichella was later reprimanded by race stewards for causing the incident. It was later revealed that Webber had competed in the first two races suffering a fractured rib, from an injury he had sustained during pre-season testing at Barcelona, though he "didn't want to make a fuss" about it and would be fully fit in time for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Outside motorsport, Webber enjoys "most outdoor pursuits" including road cycling, mountain biking, tennis and fitness training.
He has won the annual F1 Pro-Am tennis tournament in Barcelona three times , and and was also runner-up to Juan Pablo Montoya in Webber is an avid rugby league football fan, supporting the Canberra Raiders, as well as being a football fan, supporting English Championship club Sunderland. Webber was signed as test driver for the Arrows F1 team for , and also gained sponsorship from Australian beer company Foster's whilst competing in Formula Webber took victory in round two of the season at Silverstone, and finished the series with two fastest laps and three podiums on his way to third overall—the highest position of any rookie that year.
Contract issues meant that Webber was never able to drive the Arrows A21 car, and rejected a full contract offer for in July. However, he was offered a three-day evaluation test for Benetton at the end of the year, outpacing F1 drivers Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella at Estoril. The results were good enough to earn him the test driver role with the team for , and he also agreed to take on team boss Flavio Briatore as manager in return for finance for a further F season.
Webber was replaced as test driver for Benetton for by Fernando Alonso, but Briatore managed to secure Webber a contract to race alongside Alex Yoong in the Stoddart-owned Minardi team, making him the first Australian in Formula One since David Brabham in This was the first race of an initial three race contract and was extended until the end of the season after his first race. He qualified 18th of the 22 cars. The start of the race featured a spectacular accident between Ralf Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, the aftermath of which forced eight cars to retire from the race.
Webber, who had a problem with his launch control at the start, battled with a broken differential to fend off the experienced Mika Salo in a much faster Toyota and finish fifth.
Without the financial backing he had enjoyed during his time in Formula Ford, Webber and his team struggled to find the money to fund their championship campaign. He was almost forced to quit halfway through the season, but was able to obtain significant financial and personal support from Australian rugby union player David Campese, which helped him to complete the year. Mark has since stated he has been able to pay back the money Campese gave him.
Webber took victory in his fourth F3 race from pole position at Brands Hatch. He took a further four podium finishes, including a second place in the support race for the British Grand Prix, and finished the season in fourth overall. Although he initially declined the offer he was persuaded at the end of the year when invited to participate in a test session for the team at the A1-Ring in Austria.
Travelling around the world, including the United States, Japan and Europe, the pair won five of the ten rounds on their way to second in the overall standings, beaten to the Championship by teammates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta by just eight seconds in the final race at Laguna Seca.
Webber remained with the Mercedes-AMG team for His sportscar career ended early after he flipped twice on the Mulsanne Straight during practice for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race. An aerodynamic fault on the team's Mercedes-Benz CLRs caused Webber to become spectacularly airborne during both practice and race-day warm up, with the same fate befalling teammate Peter Dumbreck five hours into the race.
Both drivers escaped uninjured, but the crashes forced Mercedes to shelve their sportscar program for the year and Webber to reconsider a return to open wheel racing. After some racing success in Australia driving Formula Ford and Formula Holden, Webber moved to the United Kingdom in to further his motorsport career. Webber began a partnership with fellow Australian Paul Stoddart, at that time owner of the European Racing Formula team, which eventually took them both into Formula One when Stoddart bought the Minardi team.
Webber was given a test at Snetterton with the Van Diemen team, and subsequently earned a works drive for the team at the Formula Ford Festival, at Brands Hatch, where he finished third. That was good enough to prompt the team to signing him for the championship.
During the British Formula Ford Championship, he took four victories on his way to second place overall, finishing a strong season with a win in the Formula Ford Festival. He also won the Spa-Francorchamps race of the Formula Ford Euro Cup, taking third in the series despite competing in only two of the three rounds.
His results throughout the year saw him voted as Australian motorsport's "Young Achiever" and "International Achiever" of Two days after his Festival victory Webber completed a successful test for Alan Docking Racing, and was signed by the team to graduate to Formula Three in Webber picked up two more 11th-place finishes, but was unable to score points for the remainder of the year, his next best result coming in France, where he finished 8th.
In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Webber lost two kilograms in weight over the length of the race as he was forced to drive without a drink after his water bottle broke. Webber was able to outqualify Yoong and Anthony Davidson, who replaced Yoong for the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix in every race, and his two points in Australia were the only points that Minardi scored all season, helping them to 9th in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of Toyota and Arrows.
Webber's results earned him the "Rookie of the Year" award in F1 Racing magazine's annual Man of the Year awards receiving In light of his season, notable Formula One journalist Peter Windsor related Webber to World Champion Nigel Mansell, saying they had similar amounts of "raw talent". Webber's two following races in Malaysia and Australia were cut short due to mechanical problems.
Webber announced his retirement on October 13, from all forms of motorsport at the age of Webber officialy made his Formula One debut at his home GP. This was his first race of an initial three race contract and it was extended until the end of the season after his first race where he finished fifth after avoiding the Schumacher and Barrichello spectacular accident with the aftermath forcing eight cars to retire from the race. Webber was forced into retirement in the Malaysian Grand Prix after a electrical fault, before picking up consecutive 11th-place finishes at Brazil and San Marino.
He, along with Yoong, was forced to pull out of the Spanish Grand Prix due to potentially dangerous wing failures during the weekend. Webber was unable to score any more points for the remainder of the year, with his best result coming in France , where he finished 8th.
In the Hungarian Grand Prix , Webber lost two kilograms in weight over the race as he was forced to drive without a drink after his water bottle broke. His two points though was the only points that Minardi scored all season, helping them to 9th in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of Toyota and Arrows as it was ahead of Toyota and Arrows best result of 6th.
Webber's results in earned him the "Rookie of the Year" award in F1 Racing magazine's annual Man of the Year awards receiving half of the public votes , the Autosport.
In light of his season, notable Formula One journalist Peter Windsor related Webber to World Champion Nigel Mansell , saying they had similar amounts of "raw talent". In November , Webber was signed to Jaguar and his career at Jaguar started disappointingly when he was forced to retire on lap 15 with a rear suspension failure in the Australian Grand Prix. The following race in Malaysia was problematic for Webber; Giancarlo Fisichella began reversing towards him on the starting grid and then Webber's in-car fire extinguisher discharged into his face.
He was eventually forced to retire from 8th position with an oil consumption problem. Webber did take provisional pole in Friday qualifying of the Brazilian Grand Prix , out-qualifying local driver Rubens Barrichello by 0. He continued his good performance in the Saturday session taking a career-best 3rd on the grid just behind Rubens Barrichello and David Coulthard. It was Jaguar 's best qualifying performance in their four-year Formula One history.
In the race, which was hit heavily by rain, Webber was in seventh place when he attempted to cool his tyres by driving through a puddle lying off-line in the final corner. The resultant lack of grip caused Webber to crash heavily into the pit straight walls, leaving debris on the track which caused a second major crash; Fernando Alonso hitting a stray tyre.
The race was subsequently red-flagged, and although Webber was originally classified in 7th, an FIA investigation found a timekeeping error which meant that Webber was placed 9th in the re-classification.
Webber's good form in qualifying continued into the San Marino Grand Prix but at the start of the race he had dropped from 5th to 11th by the first corner because of a launch control failure that affected both Jaguars.
He retired from the race after 54 laps with a driveshaft failure, his fourth consecutive non-finish for the year. He then went on to score points in five of the next six races on his way to moving into the top 10 in the World Drivers' Championship, the run of point result interrupted only by an engine failure at Monaco.
One of his best races came in Austria where despite starting from the pitlane and suffering a drive-through penalty and setting the race's third fastest lap, behind only the Ferraris Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, finishing in 7th place. At the British Grand Prix , as the procession of cars exited the Becketts corner onto the Hangar straight on lap 11, now-defrocked priest Neil Horan cleared the fence wearing a kilt whilst waving banners with the statements "Read the Bible" and "The Bible is always right".
Horan ran towards the sequence of cars forcing several cars to swerve to avoid him. Webber came closest to hitting Horan in a terrifying parallel to the accident at the South African Grand Prix where volunteer track marshal, Jansen Van Vuuren, ran across the main straight to aid a car and was hit at by Welsh driver Tom Pryce.
The safety car was deployed to remove Horan from the track, and Webber eventually finished 14th. After Silverstone, Webber had scored 12 Championship points, compared to his team mate 0, and after much speculation it was announced that Minardi driver Justin Wilson would replace the Brazilian for the remainder of the year. The German Grand Prix saw Webber's sixth retirement of the season after he made a last lap lunge on Jenson Button in an attempt to salvage a point from the weekend.
Consecutive points finishes in Hungary and Italy saw Webber climb to ninth in the drivers' standings with a 5-point margin over Button. He was unable to hold on to this position however, after one too many laps on dry tyres saw him spin out from the lead of the United States Grand Prix , and a disappointing 11th-place result in Japan.
These meant that he had finished on equal points with Button but lost out on a countback. Although Wilson scored a point in the United States Grand Prix, Webber had still never been outqualified by a team-mate and, late in the year, Jaguar announced that rookie Christian Klien would team up with Webber for the season. Webber's results again earned him plaudits in the press, winning the "Driver of the Year" award from Autocar magazine.
As he signed the contract with Jaguar in , Webber qualified sixth for the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix , but faced his second consecutive retirement from his home race fom a gearbox failure on lap At the following race, the Malaysian Grand Prix , Webber produced his best qualifying performance of his early career by splitting the dominant Ferraris to line up second on the grid.
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