Mark Webber

Name: Mark Webber

Nationality: Australia

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• Mark Webber

Once considered to be Michael Schumacher's heir apparent, Mark Webber has done little so far to live up to those lofty expectations.

With only two top-three results to his name after six years in Formula One, Webber needs to pull out all the stops if he hopes to revive his flagging reputation.

Hailing from Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Webber made his junior karting debut at national level when he was 15, and in 1992 became State karting Champion.

He then made his Formula Ford debut in 1994, and continued to make a name for himself with a series of impressive performances.

Now in Europe, he won the 1996 Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, and finished second in the British Formula Ford Championship while 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.

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.

A busy 2000 saw Mark finish third in the F3000 Championship driving for Eurobet Arrows, as well as acting as the official tester for their F1 outfit (although contractual problems meant that he failed to drive the team's A21).

He did complete a successful three-day evaluation test with Benetton, however, and the team was quick to sign him up as their official 2001 tester.

During the same year, 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 F1 star since Alan Jones.

When he signed for Minardi for 2002 they got their wish - and more.

A dream debut saw a collision between Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher take out a large proportion of the grid at the first corner in Melbourne and Webber scrapped with Toyota's Mika Salo for a fifth-place finish.

That was as many points as Minardi scored all year, but a fifth place was more than the free-spending Toyota themselves could manage during their debut season.

A switch to Jaguar duly followed and Webber quickly placed new team-mate Antonio Pizzonia in the shade. Points were few and far between, and yet Webber finished the season with the reputation of a top-rate qualifier.

He remained at Jaguar for 2004, but by the halfway stage - and with the team falling a long way short of the performance-related clause in his contract - it was an open secret that he would be leaving at the end of the season.

The only question was whether it would be to Renault or Williams.

Eventually, and in spite of a late big-money offer from Toyota, Webber plumped for Williams.

And after three years of impressing at the lower end of the grid, Webber was determined to make an immediate impact at the front with his new team.

Alas, the wins didn't follow in 2005, during which Webber's team were dealt one blow after another off the track with the news that sponsor HP, engine partner BMW and soon-to-return driver Jenson Button wouldn't be a part of the squad in 2006.

On the track it wasn't much better either.

Mark failed to turn his good grid slots into strong race results, bagging just one podium finish the entire year at Monaco.

And although he was in the points more often than the less hyped Nick Heidfeld, Mark only edged ahead of his team-mate when an injury sidelined the German five races before the end of the season.

Mark finished the year tenth with 36 points.

But while 2005 wasn't exactly what Williams and Webber had hoped for, the following season was even worse. In fact it was Williams' worst season in more than a decade.

The team struggled with pace, reliability and just about everything else, with Mark claiming a measly seven points on his way to 14th in the Championship.

The poor results from both the driver and the team resulted in Webber and Williams ending their partnership after just two seasons and him moving to Red Bull Racing to partner David Coulthard.

In the first race of the 2007 season, in Melbourne, Webber qualified an impressive seventh place and held that position for the early part of the race, managing to finish in 13th position after the RB3 suffered from a throttle-related malfunction and a jammed fuel flap.

It was to be the story of Webber's season as one malfunction after another eventually added up to seven retirements. And although he continued to qualify well for most of the season, those retirements hampered his and Red Bull's progress, resulting in just three points-paying finishes for the Aussie throughout the season.

One of those, though, did include the second podium of his career at the European GP where, after qualifying in 6th position, Webber profited from the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen to hold off Williams driver Alex Wurz and take third place.

Webber then had his best chance yet of winning a race at the Japanese GP. However, running second behind Lewis Hamilton under safety car conditions, his hopes were dashed when Toro Rosso rookie Sebastian Vettel crashed into him.

The season-ending Brazilian GP summed up Webber's season when he retired while running in fourth place with yet another mechanical failure. It was his seventh DNF of the season.

Webber is set to continue with Red Bull next season after being confirmed by the team back in July. However, if Red Bull don't get a handle on their reliability issues, expected Webber to look elsewhere for a 2009 F1 drive.