Mark Webber

Mark Alan Webber (born 27 August 1976) is an Australian former professional racing driver who competed in Formula One (F1) from 2002 to 2013 and the FIA World Endurance Championship between 2014 and 2016. He is a champion of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) for Porsche with German Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.

Webber began karting at between 12 and 13 and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. 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 with the Super Nova Racing outfit. Webber made his F1 debut with the Minardi team in the 2002 season and finished fifth in his first race, the Australian Grand Prix. He moved to the Jaguar squad for each of the 2003 and the 2004 championships. For the 2005 season, he was granted an early release from his contract with Jaguar and moved to the Williams team, securing his first podium finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. Webber remained at Williams until the 2006 campaign, switching to the Red Bull squad and stayed at the team for the rest of his F1 career. He achieved nine F1 Grand Prix victories, thirteen pole positions and finished third in the World Drivers' Championship in each of the 2010, 2011 and 2013 seasons with Red Bull.

He left F1 post-2013 and moved to the WEC alongside Bernhard and Hartley in a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the fully-professional Le Mans Prototype 1 category from the 2014 to 2016 seasons. 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 Channel 4 in the UK and Network 10 in Australia and a driver manager. 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.