Mark Alan Webber (born 27 August 1976) is an Australian former racing driver, broadcaster, and driver manager who competed in Formula One from to . Webber won nine Formula One Grands Prix across twelve seasons. In endurance racing, Webber won the FIA World Endurance Championship in with Porsche.
Webber began karting at age twelve or thirteen and achieved early success, winning regional championships before progressing to car racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. He competed for two years opposite Bernd Schneider in the FIA GT Championship with the AMG Mercedes team, finishing runner-up in the 1998 season with five wins in ten races before finishing second in the 2001 International Formula 3000 Championship driving for Super Nova Racing. Webber made his F1 debut with the Minardi team in the 2002 season and finished fifth in his first race, the . He moved to the Jaguar squad for the and 2004 championships. For the 2005 season, he was granted an early release from his contract with Jaguar and joined the Williams team, securing his first podium finish at the . Webber remained at Williams until , driving for the Red Bull team for the rest of his F1 career. He won nine F1 , thirteen pole positions and finished third in the World Drivers' Championship in the , and 2013 seasons.
Webber left Formula One after 2013 and moved to the World Endurance Championship, sharing a Porsche 919 Hybrid with Bernhard and Hartley in the fully-professional Le Mans Prototype 1 class from the 2014 to 2016 seasons. The trio won eight races in the final two seasons and the 2015 World Endurance Drivers' Championship. He retired from motor sport in 2016, becoming a television pundit for Britain's Channel 4 and Australia's Network 10 and a driver manager. Webber received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2017 Australia Day Honours. Webber is an inductee of both the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame and the FIA Hall of Fame.
Early and personal life
On 27 August 1976, Webber was born to middle-class parents, motorcycle dealer and petrol station owner Alan Webber and his wife Diane, in the small New South Wales town of Queanbeyan located in the Tablelands, on the Queanbeyan River banks, near Canberra. His paternal grandfather was a firewood merchant. Webber has an elder sister, Leanne. He was educated at the nearby Isabella Street Primary School and Karabar High School (KHS). Webber represented KHS in athletics and rugby league and did Australian rules football, cricket and swimming after his mother encouraged him to get involved in as many sports as possible. At the age of thirteen, he was a ball boy for the rugby league team Canberra Raiders for a year and earned money delivering pizzas in the Canberra and Queanbeyan areas in his late schooling years. Webber also worked as an apprentice plumber and woodcutter.
Webber lives in the UK, in the small Buckinghamshire village Aston Clinton with his wife Ann Neal, his former manager, and is stepfather to her son from a previous relationship. Webber is a supporter of Sunderland A.F.C..
Early racing career Webber began driving motorbikes on weekends from about age four or five on his maternal grandfather's farm. Webber was not encouraged to seriously take up motorcycling by his father, because he sponsored some local children who were injured in motorbike accidents. At about twelve or thirteen, he switched to karting, buying a go-kart from a school friend's father. He developed himself at a local indoor go-kart centre near his home. Webber received a second-hand worn out go-kart from his father in 1990 and drove it about once a month at the Canberra Go-Kart Club and in meetings in and around Canberra. Andy Lawson, owner of Queanbeyan Kart Centre, built karts around Webber's frame and Webber's father leased his petrol station and worked long hours at a car dealer to fund his son's karting activities. Webber opted for karting, and made his junior-level karting debut in 1991 aged 14, winning the 1992 Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales (NSW) State championships. In 1993, Webber won the Canberra Cup, the King of Karting Clubman Light Class titles, the 1993 Top Gun Award at the Ian Luff Advanced Driving School, and the 1993 NSW Junior National Heavy Championship in a Lawson kart with a larger, more powerful engine.
In 1994, Webber made his car racing debut, competing in the eight-round Australian Formula Ford Championship featuring non-aerodynamically dependent open-wheel racing vehicles fitted with treaded tyres. He drove Craig Lowndes' championship-winning 1993 RF93 Van Diemen FF1600 car that his father purchased. Webber achieved a season-high third at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 30 points and second in the Rookie of the Year standings. He was disqualified from the non-championship Formula Ford support race for passing the field on the formation lap. In late 1994, Webber's father asked English-born media officer Ann Neal to locate sponsorship for Webber; Neal located support from the Australian Yellow Pages after she and Webber reviewed six proposals. Webber moved to Sydney from Queanbeyan to be closer to Australia's motor racing industry. When not racing, he earned money working part-time as a driving instructor at Oran Park Raceway defensive driving school.
Webber entered the 1995 Australian Formula Ford Championship with Yellow Pages Racing driving a 1995 Van Diemen car, finishing fourth overall with three victories, three pole positions and 158 points in a high-quality field. Webber finished second at both Mallala Motor Sport Park rounds of the 1995 Australian Drivers' Championship driving a Birrana Racing Reynard 90D-Holden car for seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 32 points. In October 1995, he moved to the London suburb of Hainault, to further his racing career. He entered the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch with the Van Diemen factory team, and finished the race third. The result impressed team owner Ralph Firman Sr. enough to sign Webber to Van Diemen for both the 1996 European Formula Ford Championship and the 1996 British Formula Ford Championship, finishing third and second overall, respectively. He won four races in the British series, finishing second in the championship behind teammate Kristian Kolby, and was also third in the Formula Ford Euro Cup driving two of the three rounds with a win at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Webber won the Formula Holden support race, and the Formula Ford Festival.
In 1997, Webber elected to skip Formula Renault and Formula Vauxhall on sponsors advice, and signed a contract to progress to the higher-tier British Formula Three Championship with Alan Docking Racing (ADR). Webber was ADR's lead driver complemented by two funded non-competitive teammates, and was told to bring funding to ADR. Driving a Dallara F397 car powered by an old Mugen Honda engine purchased by the Webber family, he won the Brands Hatch Grand Prix event and came fourth overall with 131 points. Webber was voted Rookie of the Year as 1997's highest-placed rookie. His funding almost dried up mid-season until motor racing journalist Peter Windsor suggested Webber solicit funding from rugby union player and family friend David Campese to complete the year and stop Webber ending his international career early. Webber's season was put on a race-by-race basis and he received offers from Renault and Jackie Stewart. He also finished third in the Masters of Formula 3 and fourth in the Macau Grand Prix for ADR.
Sports car racing and International Formula 3000 (1998–2001)
After testing at the A1 Ring, Webber rejected an offer from Mercedes-Benz motorsports boss Norbert Haug to drive a CLK GTR car at the FIA GT Nürburgring 4 Hours in place of Alexander Wurz. However, he did agree to race for the AMG Mercedes team in the 1998 FIA GT Championship. Haug selected Webber after AMG Mercedes' Gerhard Ungar liked Webber's tenacity. Webber was paired with touring car driver Bernd Schneider, who mentored him driving-wise and in vehicle mechanics. Driving the 1 Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, he and Schneider won five races and took eight podium finishes, finishing championship runner-up to teammates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta after a title duel with the sister team lasting to the season's final round.
In June 1998, Webber entered his first 24 Hours of Le Mans having pre-qualified due to Schneider's 1997 FIA GT Championship win. He, Ludwig and Schnieder retired their Le Mans-specific CLK-LM car after 75 minutes due to a steering pump fault causing an engine failure. Late in the year, Campese Management managed Webber until Neal resumed her professional relationship with Webber; she suggested that Webber enter the International Formula 3000 (IF3000) in 1999 pending funding. Webber entered the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans after the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) abolished the FIA GT Championship GT1 category due to a lack of manufacturer entries for 1999. Sharing the No. 4 Mercedes-Benz CLR with Jean-Marc Gounon and Marcel Tiemann, a car aerodynamic fault caused Webber to go airborne in qualifying between Mulsanne Corner and Indianapolis corner and on the Mulsanne Straight in race-day warm up, forcing his withdrawal from the race.
Webber's relationship with Mercedes-Benz cooled following Le Mans over the latter's suggestion that he was at fault for the accidents (during the race itself, teammate Peter Dumbreck would suffer a similar fate - this time caught on camera - thus proving that the car itself was inherently flawed). He rejected Haug's offer to compete in the American CART series. Greg Moore's death in an accident in California in October 1999 prompted Webber to focus on European single-seater racing. His Mercedes-Benz contract was terminated around November following negotiations. Webber subsequently pursued an F1 testing contract, the end result of which was a deal with Australian airline magnate Paul Stoddart's European Aviation F3000 team. At the beginning of the 2000 season, Stoddart announced that his team would become the Arrows junior team, with Webber also slated to test the Arrows F1 car later in the year. Webber finished third in the Drivers' Championship with 21 points, winning at Silverstone, achieving two podium results and retiring four times. Despite an impressive rookie season, his maiden F1 test faced a major hurdle when, prior to stepping into the car for the first time, he was presented with (in his view) an untenable contract. Having rejected the Arrows' team proposal, his offer to test their F1 car was rescinded.
For 2001, Webber moved to the Benetton Formula-affiliated, reigning teams' champions Super Nova Racing, replacing Nicolas Minassian. Webber, the title favourite, tended to overestimate the Lola car's grip whilst combining F3000 racing with regular access to F1 vehicles for testing. Webber won at Imola, Monaco and Magny-Cours and was second at the Nürburgring. Four consecutive retirements in the final four rounds prevented him from winning the championship, and he scored 39 points, finishing runner-up to Justin Wilson.
Formula One career (1999–2013) Testing (1999–2001)