Mark Webber (racing driver)

Mark Alan Webber (born 27 August 1976) is an Australian former racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2013 and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) between 2014 and 2016.

On 27 August 1976, Webber was born to middle-class parents, motorcycle dealer and petrol station owner Alan Webber and his wife Diane, in the small New South Wales town of Queanbeyan located in the Tablelands, on the Queanbeyan River banks, near Canberra.

His paternal grandfather was a firewood merchant.

Webber has an elder sister, Leanne.

He was educated at the nearby Isabella Street Primary School and Karabar High School (KHS).

Webber represented KHS in athletics and rugby league and did Australian rules football, cricket and swimming after his mother encouraged him to get involved in as many sports as possible.

At age 13, he was a ball boy for the rugby league team Canberra Raiders for a year and earned money delivering pizzas in the Canberra and Queanbeyan areas in his late schooling years.

Webber also worked as an apprentice plumber and woodcutter.

He lives in the small Buckinghamshire village of Aston Clinton with his wife Ann Neal and is stepfather to her son from a previous relationship.

Webber began driving motorbikes on weekends from about age four or five on his maternal grandfather's 2500 acre farm.

Webber was not encouraged to seriously take up motorcycling by his father, because he sponsored some local children who were injured in motorbike accidents.

At about 12 or 13, he switched to karting, buying a go-kart from a school friend's father.

He developed himself at a local indoor go-kart centre near his home.

Webber received a second-hand worn out go-kart from his father in 1990 and drove it about once a month at the Canberra Go-Kart Club and in meetings in and around Canberra.

Andy Lawson, owner of Queanbeyan Kart Centre, built karts around Webber's frame and Webber's father leased his petrol station and worked long hours at a car dealer to fund his son's karting activities.

Webber opted for karting, and made his junior-level karting debut in 1991 aged 14, winning the 1992 Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales (NSW) State championships.

In 1993, Webber won the Canberra Cup, the King of Karting Clubman Light Class titles, the 1993 Top Gun Award at the Ian Luff Advanced Driving School, and the 1993 NSW Junior National Heavy Championship in a Lawson kart with a larger, more powerful engine.

He drove Craig Lowndes' championship-winning 1993 RF93 Van Diemen FF1600 car that his father purchased.

In 1994, he made his car racing debut, competing in the eight-round Australian Formula Ford Championship featuring non-aerodynamically dependent open-wheel racing vehicles fitted with treaded tyres.

In late 1994, Webber's father asked English-born media officer Ann Neal to locate sponsorship for Webber; Neal located support from the Australian Yellow Pages after she and Webber reviewed six proposals.

Webber moved to Sydney from Queanbeyan to be closer to Australia's motor racing industry.

When not racing, he earned money working part-time as a driving instructor at Oran Park Raceway defensive driving school.

He entered the 1995 Australian Formula Ford Championship with Yellow Pages Racing driving a 1995 Van Diemen car, finishing fourth overall with three victories, three pole positions and 158 points in a high-quality field.

Webber finished second at both Mallala Motor Sport Park rounds of the 1995 Australian Drivers' Championship driving a Birrana Racing Reynard 90D-Holden car for seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 32 points.

In October 1995, he moved to the London suburb of Hainault, to further his racing career.

He competed for two years opposite Bernd Schneider in the FIA GT Championship with the AMG Mercedes team, finishing runner-up in the 1998 season with five wins in ten races before finishing second in the 2001 International Formula 3000 Championship driving for Super Nova Racing.

Webber received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2017 Australia Day Honours.

Webber is an inductee of both the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame and the FIA Hall of Fame.

Webber made his F1 debut with the Minardi team in the 2002 season and finished fifth in his first race, the.

He moved to the Jaguar squad for the and 2004 championships.

For the 2005 season, he was granted an early release from his contract with Jaguar and joined the Williams team, securing his first podium finish at the.

Webber remained at Williams until, driving for the Red Bull team for the rest of his F1 career.

He won nine F1 Grands Prix, thirteen pole positions and finished third in the World Drivers' Championship in the, and 2013 seasons.

He left Formula One after 2013 and moved to the World Endurance Championship, sharing a Porsche 919 Hybrid with Bernhard and Hartley in the fully-professional Le Mans Prototype 1 class from the 2014 to 2016 seasons.

Webber achieved a season-high third at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 30 points and second in the Rookie of the Year standings.

He was disqualified from the non-championship Formula Ford support race for passing the field on the formation lap.

He is a champion of the 2015 FIA WEC for Porsche with German Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.

Webber began karting at age 12 or 13 and achieved early success, winning regional championships before progressing to car racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship.

The trio won eight races in the final two seasons and the 2015 World Endurance Drivers' Championship.

He retired from motor sport in 2016, becoming a television pundit for Britain's Channel 4 and Australia's Network 10 and a driver manager.