Can Webber discover winning formula
Mike Duffy
05feb05
For a man riding a 350km/h rollercoaster to international fame and fortune, Australian Mark Webber manages to keep his feet firmly on the ground.
His dream is to become the first Aussie since Alan Jones to wear the world championship Formula One crown – a rare feat achieved three times by another true-blue Aussie, Sir Jack Brabham.
For the 2005 season alone, Webber is rumoured to be earning around $A14 million – more than twice the pay packet of new teammate Nick Heidfeld.
Yet while his professional life sees him rub shoulders – and wheels – with the likes of seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher – Webber enjoys nothing better than hanging out with his English girlfriend Ann Neal, whom he met in Sydney, and close close friends who do not know the first thing about motorsport.
The lad from Queanbeyan is blisteringly quick on the race circuits of the world – yet his professional and personal persona is relaxed and controlled.
All these qualities contributed to him earning the plum job of driving for BMW WilliamsF1, a frontline team with the history, the technical skills and the financial firepower to challenge the long domination of grand prix racing by Scuderia Ferrari and the amazingly brilliant Schumacher.
Webber and Williams go into combat for the first time against the feared red cars at the Melbourne Grand Prix on March 6.
Team boss Sir Frank Williams said at the launch of the 2005 race car here this week: "Mark is a highly talented driver, but his tenacity, determination and motivation are also qualities we prize at WilliamsF1.
"As a team, we have traditionally prospered with drivers who have had a down-to-earth, 'let's get on with it' attitude. Mark is certainly in that mould."
Webber and Ann have bought a 17th century English manor house near Aylesbury, in a quiet rural setting. It is one hour's drive from the WilliamsF1's works at Grove, a sprawling technology campus on 40ha of rolling Oxfordshire countryside.
That makes it easy for Mark to commute to the factory three or four times a week, to make a contribution to solving the multitude of problems in making the 05 race car a winner.
In the few months since he signed to drive the BMW Williams, Webber has been embraced as one of the team. He visits the Williams factory more times most weeks than last year's drivers, German Ralf Schumacher and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, went in the entire season.
When Webber takes to the Albert Park circuit next month, there will be widespread national support for the local hero – and great expectations. All will be barracking for him to better the then dream fifth placing at his debut for the lowly Minardi team in 2002, on his way to winning F1's Rookie of the Year title.
But BMW Williams and Webber know well that Ferrari will be as formidable as ever.
"It's fantastic to come to Williams. It's a tremendously successful team," Webber said this week.
"I'm very privileged to drive for them. Every day I have to pinch myself (to check) I am in this situation.
"Yes, we are aiming at winning as many races as possible – we are not putting in so many hours to finish in third spot.
"But you have to be realistic. For instance, to date, I haven't achieved much in Formula One. I haven't even finished on the podium (first, second or third).
"Yes, it would sensational to do that in Melbourne. But we have to be realistic.
"Consistency in this game is tremendously tough – especially when you have opposition like Ferrari and McLaren.
"But Williams have been at the top many times before. They know how to do it. And I hope I can be part of their return to success."
So what is his personal target?
"I want Frank (Williams) and the whole team to look at me at the end of the season and be incredibly proud of what I have achieved, what we have achieved. Yes, that's my goal," he says.
"I want to give it everything I've got and have few regrets.
"You can dream as much as you like mate, and can say you want to be world champion next year or this year.
"But the reality is, it will be incredibly tough to do that. Realistically, I have never won an F1 race. Hopefully, that will come pretty quickly. Then after that..."
Webber continues: "Look, I'm confident I can deliver. I'm not worried about that at all. I'm not overwhelmed by being where I am.
"I just hope we can come through with the goods. The team is working like mad.
"They are a tremendous team with tremendous knowledge, really good guys with massive ability.
"The name of the game in Melbourne is seeing the chequered flag."
For the past two seasons, Webber has driven for Jaguar.
Each race to Melbourne has seen him work his way into the top six places, only to be thwarted by mechanical failure.
"I love going back home to race," he says. "Yes, the expectation is high. But F1 is full-on every race, every day, every second. Every member of the team lives under the pump.
"Don't misunderstand me. I'm very lucky to have a home GP – many drivers don't get the chance to race in front of their home fans.
"If I had a choice where I could have my first result, my first win, it would be in Melbourne.
"Driving for BMW Williams means I now have the opportunity to fulfil the expectations the country has for me.
"I definitely want to hear my national anthem being played as soon as possible at a Formula One venue. It's been over 20 years since that last happened. It will be a special moment. But Melbourne is just another track when the visor comes down."
Webber says he has the highest respect for Michael Schumacher.
"He's a fantastic person. A fantastic family man. Seven times world champion, a superstar legend of our sport. He's probably one of the greatest sportsman that ever lived. But he is still a normal bloke.
"Yes, I do feel I can beat Schumacher. But it's going to be very tough.There will be races in which things don't happen for him and they really happen for me.
"For me, that won't be a rewarding victory over Michael," Webber says. "A rewarding victory will be when it's a dogfight all the way from the start to the checkered flag and I can look at myself in the mirror and say: 'Today I beat him fair and square'."
At present, Webber is not looking past his career in Formula One – a career he hopes can stretch until he is 35 years old.
And what about when he hangs up his driving gloves and helmet for the last time?
"Oh, there are lots of challenges. There is Everest ..."
I thought I was definitely going to die
Mark Webber has revealed for the first time details about two horror accidents at Le Mans which went within an ace of claiming his life but put him on the road back to Formula One.
Webber had every right to have high hopes for the 1999 season as the Mercedes race team set their sites on winning Le Mans.
All was going well during the Thursday night practice session in the lead-up to the 24-hour classic when the first of two accidents marred Merc's preparations. Out of the view of TV cameras and spectators, on the far side of the 13km circuit, Webber's car became airborne at more than 300km/h and did a frightening backwards somersault, landing back on to the track. The car was destroyed.
"One minute I was travelling at full noise the next I was airborne and flipping backwards," he says. "It happened in slow motion just like a plane taking off. I did get on the brake to get the front back down but I was 2/10ths too late. I was just petrified of flying out of the track into the trees.
"When I first took off I thought I was definitely going to die. No doubt about it.
"I thought to walk away from this one would be absolutely incredible. It was a very long accident. You think about things at home. So many things go through your mind in those six or seven seconds.
"Miraculously, I came down right way up but with a tremendous crash. I was still alive, nothing broken. Shaken and a bit bruised. But still alive and not a scratch. I couldn't believe my good luck."
Back in the Mercedes pits, everyone was blaming the driver. He was pushing too hard. He got trapped for too long, going too fast in the dirty air of another car.
"We just put it down to, 'Oh well, the wind blew the wrong way. Naive reasons really. You look back on it and think it was all so ridiculous.
"But we got through all that. They built me a new car and I went out to practice on the Saturday morning feeling terrific," Webber recalls. However, things were about to turn deadly again. This time, the full horror of Webber's second flip was in front of TV cameras. Television newscasts around the world showed the Aussie driver loop-the-loop at Le Mans &150; and live.
The exceptionally quick Australian was working the famed Mulsanne straight.
"I was batting along at the max – probably around 320km/h. It's the only place at Le Mans where you can have a bit of relax and get yourself organised.
"We had a small air-vent in the corner of the windscreen to let air into the car.
"I was going so fast, the air was blowing in too hard. I reached forward to close the vent and suddenly I was back in big trouble.
"The front was lifting. It was an action replay of what had happened on Thursday evening. Again I went for the brakes, again I was too late. Again, everything was happening very slowly. Again the nose came up and over. I was looking at the world upside down. I was a passenger in a flying object which was to crash.
"This time I was strangely calmer. I'd come through the first somersault, I thought, so I was going to be all right. But I knew I was kidding myself more than a little bit.
"Then I knew this was another big one and my life was on the line. I recall thinking, 'I don't want any pain whatever happens. I want it to be over quickly'.
"Again I came down on the wheels with a tremendous crash.
"But again I was OK. Again, I couldn't believe my luck. But again the Mercedes guys were very dark on me. There was a widespread feeling it was all my fault. I didn't see it that way at all, but I was too busy feeling utterly relieved I hadn't been killed or badly injured to get involved in any rows."
Mercedes dialled in more downforce on its two remaining cars as a precaution.
But five hours into the race Webber's teammate Peter Dumbreck did an identical flip to those of the Aussie driver.
Instead of coming down on the track, his GT car flew over the armco crash barriers and out of the circuit into the forest.
"Peter was very lucky. Two weeks before the race the forest people had been felling some trees and he landed in the clearing. Thankfully, he was not injured. We had both been very lucky boys."
Webber was proven blameless. Flawed aerodynamics were the cause of the three back-flips, which so easily could have taken the lives of the two drivers. Mercedes withdrew the remaining car and immediately ended its sports prototypes program. The cars were never raced again
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