Mark Webber
Mark Webber won nine Formula 1 Grands Prix and came closer to the world championship than his results fully suggest — finishing second in 2010 in a season where the title arguably should have been his. He is also one of the most personally transparent drivers in the sport's recent history: direct in the Australian fashion, honest about his frustrations, and disinclined to perform contentment he does not feel.
Webber grew up in Queanbeyan, a small city on the New South Wales–ACT border, in a family with no motorsport connections. He made his way to England in his late teens with minimal financial support, living frugally and racing in whatever he could find a seat in. His early career trajectory was upward but slow — a pattern that left him with the perspective of someone who had arrived at the top of the sport through genuine difficulty rather than through the funded junior pathways that most of his contemporaries had used.
His years at Red Bull, alongside Sebastian Vettel, produced some of the most openly contentious team dynamics in recent Formula 1 history. The 2010 season, in which Webber led the championship for extended periods and lost it in the final race, was followed by seasons in which Vettel's dominance became increasingly total. The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix — in which Webber was instructed by the team to hold position behind Vettel, given the instruction the codename 'Multi-21', and watched Vettel ignore it and overtake him — produced one of the sport's most famous intra-team incidents. Webber's post-race comments were carefully chosen.
After leaving Formula 1 at the end of 2013, he joined the Porsche LMP1 programme in the World Endurance Championship — winning the championship in 2015. The decision was consistent with his personality: rather than transitioning to commentary or team management, he chose to keep competing at the highest level available to him. He has since been involved in driver management and motor racing promotion, and completed a memoir that is more candid about the Red Bull years than the sport's culture usually permits.
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After winning the 2010 British Grand Prix at Silverstone — a race in which Red Bull had experienced a controversial wheel-nut failure on his car during a previous race, and where questions about his standing within the team were circulating publicly — Webber delivered the line 'Not bad for a number two driver' into his radio. The quote was widely interpreted as a comment on his relationship with the team rather than on his own performance.
At the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Red Bull instructed both drivers to hold position. Webber was ahead of Vettel. Vettel overtook him, winning the race. The team instruction was transmitted using the code 'Multi-21'. Webber's public response after the race — acknowledging what had happened without melodrama — demonstrated a form of controlled directness that became one of the defining moments of his Red Bull years.
Webber competed in Ironman triathlons during his F1 career and has continued in triathlon and endurance sport since retiring from single-seaters. The discipline required — long-distance swimming, cycling, and running combined in a single event — appealed to his competitive instinct and his preference for sports that test sustained effort rather than explosive performance. He has spoken about the mental parallels between endurance sport and racing.
Webber joined the Porsche LMP1 programme in 2014 and competed in the World Endurance Championship until 2016, winning the championship in 2015. The move was characteristically direct: rather than retiring to broadcasting or team management, he kept racing at the highest available level. His performances in endurance racing — a discipline requiring car management and consistent performance over many hours — were excellent.
Before his Formula 1 career began, Webber was involved in a significant accident at Le Mans in 1999 when his Mercedes CLR flipped at speed and became airborne. He was uninjured but the incident — one of three similar accidents with the same car in that race — was widely covered and led to significant safety reviews. It did not deter him from endurance racing, to which he returned fifteen years later with Porsche.
Webber and Ann Neal, his partner of many years and subsequently his wife, have maintained both a personal and professional relationship throughout his career — she managed his commercial interests and helped structure his post-racing activities. The arrangement is less unusual in motorsport than it might appear in other professional contexts, but Webber has spoken about the particular trust involved in combining the two roles.