Marc Webber |
Official Website: Webber-Racing.co.uk & Webber.Yellowpages.au
Place of Birth: Queanbeyan, NSW, Australia
Resides: Mursley, Bucks, UK
Status: Single
Height: 1.84m
Weight: 74kg
Races: 17
Wins: 0 (0.0%)
Podiums: 0 (0.0%)
Pole Positions: 0 (0.0%)
Retirements: 8 (47.1%)
Points Accumulated: 2.000
Debut: 03 Mar 2002
Last Race: 09 Mar 2003
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View a complete listing of Mark Webber's Formula 1 results
Driver History
Webber made his junior karting debut at national level when he was
15, and in 1992 became New South Wales state karting champion.
He made his Formula Ford debut in 1994, and continued to make a
name for himself with aseries of impressive performances.
In 1996, Mark won the Formula Ford Festival, and finished second
in the British Formula Ford championship, driving for Van Diemen.
His achievements led to him being voted Australian motorsport's
'Young Achiever' and 'International Achiever' of 1996.
Moving to F3 for the following year, Mark competed with Alan Docking
Racing; taking five podiums and a win at Brands Hatch, before becoming
Mercedes official works junior driver for the following year.
Webber took part in the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hour Race, with Mercedes,
but his season with AMG was cut short when the company cancelled
its sportscar programme. Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck both spectacularly
somersaulted their cars at Le Mans, though neither, thankfully,
was injured. In 1999 he also made his Formula One test debut by
participating in a two day test with Arrows at Barcelona, in December
1999.
A busy 2000 saw Mark finish third in the F3000 championship, driving
for Eurobet Arrows, as well as acting as the official tester for
the Arrows F1 outfit, although contract problems meant that he failed
to drive the A21. He did complete a successful three day evaluation
test with Benetton however, and the team were quick to sign him
up as their official 2001 tester.
In 2001, he battled it out with Justin Wilson in F3000 but had
to make do with second place in the championship. However with a
Flavio Briatore contract in his pocket, many Australians held their
breath that at last they were going to have their first decent Aussie
driver in F1 since Alan Jones.
When he signed for Minardi for 2002 they got their wish - and more.
A dream debut saw Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher take out
a lot of the grid at the first corner in Melbourne and Mark Webber
scrapped with Salo for a 5th place finish.
That was as many points as Minardi scored all year, but a 5th place
was more than Toyota could manage in 2002.
Halfway through the year a promising test with Jaguar linked Webber
with the soon-to-be-out-of-contract Eddie Irvine's seat. Though
he wasn't confirmed at the Ford-owned team till season's end, the
pairing of Webber and F1 rookie Antonio Pizzonia will be one to
watch in 2003.
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