Santander having that slightly smug tone in their new advert is...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 and Red Bull
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.
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.
Webber remains at Red Bull with Coulthard for 2008.
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