Mark Webber won his first F1 race after 130 starts in 2009

After starting his career in Australia racing Formula Ford and Formula F4000, Webber came over to Britain in 1996 and won the Formula Ford Festival.

In 1997 he raced in British Formula Three, finishing the year fourth for Alan Docking Racing. He joined Mercedes for 1998 to contest the FIA GT championship and was runner-up with five wins.

Webber got his first F1 test with Arrows the following year and also tested for European Racing, who he would join in Formula 3000 the following year.

On his official website Webber lists six moments to remember and a single ‘forgettable moment’ – Le Mans 1999. He contested the 24 hour race for Mercedes but was fortunate to escape without serious injury after two shocking crashes in practices, both caused by instability in the CLK racing car. Mercedes withdrew during the race after Peter Dumbreck suffered a similar accident, flipping on the main straight at 200mph.

After that he switched back to single-seater racing and won his second F3000 race in Silverstone. He ended the year third and was second in 2001 Super Nova, scoring three wins, but was 32 points behind Justin Wilson.

Minardi and Jaguar

He got his F1 break the following season with Minardi, which was owned by fellow Australian Paul Stoddart. It was an emotional day when Webber made his début at home in Melbourne, finishing an unlikely fifth after a first-lap crash wiped out most of the field.

Webber had few other opportunities to show what he was capable of but attracted the attention of Jaguar who signed him for 2003. In his third race for the team he demonstrated his strength in qualifying starting third on the grid at Sepang. He repeated the feat at the Hungaroring later that year.

But Jaguar weren’t making any progress and in 2004 he scored seven points – ten fewer than 2003. Ford lost interest in the team and sold them to Red Bull while Webber, against the advice of manager Flavio Briatore, signed for Williams.

Williams

Williams too were on a downward spiral and would lose their BMW engine supply at the end of the year. Webber ended the year 10th with 36 points but the following season with Cosworth power was a disaster. The car was unreliable and Webber retired from top three positions at Melbourne and Monte-Carlo. At the end of the season he had scored just seven points.

Red Bull

2007

For 2007 he returned to the last team he had raced for – now run by Red Bull and benefiting from a substantial injection of cash. Webber partnered the experienced David Coulthard but the 2007 Red Bull (the first to be designed by Adrian Newey) proved very unreliable – and Webber bore the brunt of the problems.

But he also seized the chance to shine, regularly qualified well (usually beating Coulthard by a comfortable margin), was third at the Nürburgring and was second at Fuji until he was taken out by Sebastian Vettel during a safety car period.

2008

In their second season together Webber decisively had the upper hand over Coulthard. He regularly brought the RB4 home in the lower points positions early in the season, peaking at fourth in the wet at Monte-Carlo.

As the car fell off the pace later in the season Webber could only look on as future team mate Vettel scored his maiden win at Monza in the rain. But Webber had only himself to blame for losing his most promising starting position of the year, second at Silverstone, which he threw away with a spin on the first lap.

2009

After several years with uncompetitive or unreliable cars, Webber finally had a car capable of fighting for wins in 2009. But a broken leg sustained during his annual ‘Pure Tasmania Challenge’ put his season in jeopardy.

He was passed fit to race in the first round at Melbourne, but a noticable limp showed that despite his recuperation he was still suffering the after-efforts. His efforts in front of his home crowd were in vain in as a collision with Rubens Barrichello on the first lap ruined his race.

The pair made contact on the opening lap at the Nürburgring as well, and this time Webber was handed a penalty. He shrugged it off and won the race anyway, finally tasting victory after a 130-race wait – the longest any driver has taken to score his first win.

It was a useful result for Webber who was facing the toughest team mate of his career to date in Sebastian Vettel. Following his Nürburgring win Webber briefly held second in the drivers’ championship. But a series of missed opportunities, due to a combination of driver and team errors plus unreliability, saw Webber fall to fourh by the end of the season.

However he ended the season well with a second win at Interlagos and a battling second place at Yas Island, holding off an attack from newly-crowned champion Jenson Button on the final lap.

More articles about Mark Webber