Mark Webber

The man is said to be the 'Unluckiest Man in Modern Formula One'. His six years of Formula One have displayed remarkable promise, patchy brilliance and a lot of bad fortune. Mark Webber has the unenviable record having the second highest number of Formula1 race starts without a win.

Webber's professional racing career started with the Formula Ford Championships, his single seater debut, in 1994. After a season long learning session, the Aussie had acquired the skill to perform much better in the next season, with a 4th place finish in the Formula Ford Championships as well as a third place finish at the Duckhams Formula Ford Festival in the United Kingdom. He shifted to the British Formula Ford Championships in 1996 and drove his way to a brilliant 2nd place finish. He also won the Duckhams Formula Ford Festival in the same year.

Mark had an extremely busy schedule in 1997. He had been promoted to the British Formula 3 races where he finished 3rd overall. He also finished third in the Marlboro Masters F3 and got a 4th place at the Macau Formula3 Grand Prix. He also tested for the Mercedes AMG Sports Car Team for the FIA GT Championships.

In 1998, he took part in the FIA GT Championships and took an impressive 5 wins on his way to a second place finish to the season. As part of the Mercedes AMG Sports Car Team, he took part in the Le-Mans 24 hour race. Although, for 1999, his year would be remembered more for the testing sessions that he carried out for the European Formula Racing F3000 and more importantly, his testing with the Arrows F1 team.
Despite many long years of strong performances, he was still only on the verge of joining Formula1 and for now, his role was limited to that of testing for the teams.

In the year 2000, he finished third in the Formula3000 championships, knocking bigger and harder at the doors of the Formula1 teams. He won one race and had three podium finishes as he impressed the Benetton-PlayLife team into giving him another F1 testing opportunity. The same sequence of events continued with the Formula3000 and the Benetton team although Webber took an extra step towards Formula1 in each avenue. He finished the 2001 Formula3000 season in 2nd place and along with testing duties for Benetton, he also became their standby river for the season of F1.

Mark Webber made his long awaited Formula One debut in 2002 for the Minardi-Asiatech team from Italy. On his debut, he showed incredible promise at his home Grand Prix, coming in at 5th place in Albert Park. The fifth spot is still the best ever finish for Minardi in all their years in Formula1. Although he claimed just 2 points in the season, he comfortably outpaced his team mate Alex Yoong.

Jordon and Jackie Stewart's team combined together to form the Jaguar Racing team and they quickly identified and recruited Mark Webber as one of their drivers for 2003. Antonio Pizzonia and Justin Wilson were left trailing behind him as Webber surpassed his team mates by getting 17 points in the season and claiming 10th place in the Drivers' standings.

In 2004, the Jaguar Racing team was to have its last shot at the big league and Webber failed to create any fireworks. The only consolation was in a sixth place finish at Hockenheim. Jaguar Racing shut down shop and Webber was looking for a new spot. Meanwhile, at WilliamsF1, Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya's contracts had been terminated and the team was looking for fresh blood for their 2005 season. Webber and Nick Heidfeld became the two main drivers for the well established team.

Heidfeld and Webber were steady throughout the season and Webber claimed his first ever podium finish at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix.

That was to be his only podium finish in that season as he finished the season with 36 points at 10th place. A new look Williams, without the BMW collaboration, led to a disastrous season for the Aussie as he only managed 7 points while his team mate, Heidfeld, managed just 4.

In 2007, Webber changed loyalties again, this time to Red Bull Racing, where he was placed alongside F1 veteran David Coulthard. Things got better as he finished with 10 championship points in the season and got to the podium at Indianapolis.

His bad fortune has led him to retirement from many races including the Suzuka race weekend where an inexperienced Vettel stopped Webber's podium run short and took him out of the race. This promising driver has had many problems with an underperforming and unreliable car but at times when his machinery has allowed him, he has pulled out some strong and breathtaking performances out of the bag.

Fans would be hoping that in another season next to DC, in 2008, he will be able to demonstrate more of the promising driving that he has been known for. Still driving for the Austrian Constructor, Webber will hope to deliver on his promise at becoming a World Championship constructor, someday.