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DRIVERS: MARK WEBBER

Name: Mark Webber
Nationality: Australia
Date of birth: August 27, 1976 - Queanbeyan, Australia

Mark Webber, Australian GP 2005 

 © The Cahier Archive

The son of a motorcycle dealer Webber started out in motocross but then switched to karts but he was more interested in other sports in his teenage years and although he watched F1 on the television it was not until 1993 that he began to get serious about the sport and won the New South Wales state karting championship. The following year he moved into Formula Ford and ran his own team and at the end of 1995 he went to Europe and talked his way into a test with Van Diemen and was asked if he would like to race a works car in the Formula Ford Festival. He did well and Ralf Firman offered him a drive for 1996. He did not win the title but he did win the all-important Festival at the end of the year. He did a deal to drive for Alan Docking in the British F3 series but struggled for money. Despite this he won at Brands Hatch and this helped him to find support from Australian rugby legend David Campese, who produced some much needed finance in the midseason. His performance attarcted the attention of Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug and having no money for 1998 Webber decided to join the Mercedes-Benz sportscar team as team mate to Bernd Schneider. This gave him many miles of invaluable testing in powerful machinery but Webber decided to call it a day in 1999 after he survived not one but two flips at 185mph at the Le Mans 24 Hours because of an aerodynamic problem. Webber decided to try to get into F1 and was introduced to Paul Stoddart by Eddie Jordan. Stoddart was building up his Formula 3000 team and agreed to finance Webber for the 2000 season and he finished third in the championship. This led to a testing deal with the Benetton F1 team and a drive in 2001 with the Super Nova Racing F3000 team. Webber fought for the title with Justin Wilson but lost out at the end of the year but despite this he was signed to drive for Minardi (now owned by Stoddart) in 2002. Webber's debut in Australia was a miraculous affair with the Minardi coming home in the points for a fairytale finish. The rest of the year underlined Webber's promise and he was duly signed by Jaguar Racing for 2003.There followed two frustrating seasons with the team before Webber was hired by BMW Williams for 2005. The timing was bad as Williams and BMW were about to split and performance dropped off, although Webber finished third at Monaco. He stayed with the team in 2006 but it was a tough year with the team suffering from reliability problems. Webber was in a position to win at Monaco but the car failed him and at the end of the year he signed for Red Bull Racing for 2007.