Mark Webber

Mark Webber has had a wonderful season in 2009 and continued driving for Red Bull Racing for the 2010 season. Finishing third overall in the Drivers Championship, Webber is right under the spotlight at the moment. With a great team backing him, Mark Webber has little to worry about in the coming season. After leading the championship at multiple instances and being favoured to take the title till the end, Webber is a champion in the making and he will accept nothing less than the championship this season.

Mark Webber had racing and engines in his blood! Metaphorically, of course! Son of a motorcycle dealer, he came in contact with these machines earlier than most people yet took to racing later than some his current peers. His first tryst with karting, the stepping stone to car racing did not happen until he was 14. After that, though, it was a steady rise until he entered Formula 1 in 2002.

Being from Australia, he needed to work that bit harder to be noticed, though. So after racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship for a few years, he moved to Europe seeking a career in racing there. After a tough time in Europe when lack of financial backing almost saw him quit halfway, he finished fourth in Formula Three and was now starting to get noticed. He first raced for a Formula 1 team as test driver for Benetton in 2001 and managed to outpace the likes of Ralf Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella but this still didn't earn him a seat with an F1 team. But his time was near...

Minardi offered Webber a contract for the 2002 season alongside Alex Yoong and became the first Australian since David Brabham to race for a Formula 1 team. The debut season was far from a fairy tale, though. Webber managed to score points by finishing fifth in his debut race in the Australian GP, but thereafter, technical snags put a dent in the season. He managed two 11th place finishes and an 8th along the way, but could not score any more points. The points he scored in the first race were also the first for Minardi since 1999! In the same season, Webber broke his water bottle in Hungarian GP and had to drive without a drink for the entire race resulting in the loss of two kilograms of body weight!

But his efforts did not go unnoticed and he was the "Rookie of the year" and "F1 Newcomer of the Year" among other recognitions. This went a long way in securing him a spot with the Jaguar team for the 2003 season. He had set himself the goal of ending the year in the top 10 and just about managed that scoring 18 points for the season. The one-lap qualifying rule adopted for this season suited him fine and he excelled in this format with his personal best being third on the grid for the Brazilian and Hungarian GPs. These were the highest qualification spots for Jaguar at the time.

The 2004 season was tougher compared to 2003 and the points were harder to come by. There were some high points through the year, though. Webber managed to qualify the Jaguar R5 in second place behind Michael Schumacher at the Malaysian GP. A total of seven points saw him finish 13th in the overall standings, but this was not the target he had set himself. This was the year when there was a change in teams for Webber. Although he was originally supposed to have Jensen Button as a partner, contractual complications changed that and the possibilities pointed at either Antonio Pizzonia or Nick Heidfeld. It was eventually Heidfeld who would win the seat in a new-look Williams team.

The 2005 season was not exactly as planned. Pre-season testing exposed a few glitches in the Williams make up but things started of a little better than expected. Williams was a strong team until this year and everyone expected them to do well. Webber qualified third in the season opener in Australia and finished the race fifth to kick off the season on a positive note. But the highlight of the season definitely was the podium finish in Monaco. Webber excelled throughout the season and had some good results. He finished the season with 36 points, his best ever but five retirements through the season took their toll and he could only manage a 10th place finish in the overall standings.

A slightly shuffled calendar for 2006 meant Bahrain was the first race of the year. But Webber continued the tradition of starting the season well with a sixth place finish. This, perhaps, was the most ‘learning' of all seasons for Webber. No fewer than 11 retirements all but relegated him to the lower half of the drivers' standings. The highlights of the year being the first race in Bahrain and the San Marino GP, when he finished third in each. A less than satisfactory end to a less than satisfactory association.

Webber lost his spot in the Williams team when he did not commit at the end of 2006. Eventually, he did get a seat with Red Bull Racing alongside David Coulthard. Webber has a lot riding on the new RB3 for 2007 and after five years, he is expected to do much better than any of the previous seasons.

And he did deliver to some extent. Webber was guilty of losing some competitive positions through 2008, but gave enough proof of his capabilities that Red Bull persisted with him. Although he emerged as the leading driver for the team in 2008, he will have a tougher task against Sebastian Vettel who will move from Toro Rosso to partner him. Vettel has already shown his worth finishing 8th in 2008 and also notching up a remarkable win.

Webber started the 2009 season with a broken leg and having undergone pre season testing with steel rods in his leg. The season inaugural Australian GP was a disappointment as he only managed to finish the race last under safety car conditions. Well, the race sure was misleading the followers about Webber's true racing form. In the second GP in Malaysia, he managed to finish sixth, picking up his first points of the season. The Chinese GP was an eye opener in the Brawn GP dominated start with Red Bull Racing taking its first 1-2 of the season. Webber finished second behind team mate Sebastian Vettel. Though he did not enjoy luck in the Bahrain GP, he streaked ahead with six point scoring races, bagging five podiums including a win. This surprising flurry was halted in European GP, and he did not manage to score any points in the next five races. To finish his best season in style he picked up a win in Brazil and second in the first ever Abu Dhabi GP at Yas Marina.

After dominating the 2010 season to finally miss out on the championship by a few points, Webber is headstrong at claiming the title and will not accept anything less. With the reigning world champion and the power of the Red Bull on his side, Mark is all set to claim the title that is dangling just beyond his reach.