🇦🇺 Mark Webber

Mark Webber is an elite professional driver who competed across 19 seasons from 1997 to 2016, primarily in Formula 1 for Red Bull. He raced single-seaters in the junior categories and top-flight competition, and transitioned to endurance racing in his final three seasons with Porsche Team in the World Endurance Championship, where he drove prototype sports cars in multiclass fields.[1]

Webber's Formula 1 career from 2002 to 2013 spanned 217 starts with Red Bull, yielding nine wins and 42 podiums across 12 seasons. In endurance racing, he made 25 WEC starts for Porsche Team between 2014 and 2016, taking eight wins and 15 podiums. His career highlight came in 2016 when he won the WEC drivers' championship with Porsche; the team also claimed the LMP1 manufacturers' title in both 2015 and 2016 during his tenure. Earlier in his career, he raced in the FIA GT Championship in 1998, taking five wins from ten starts in shared-car endurance competition, and competed in International Formula 3000 between 2000 and 2001 with four wins from 22 starts.[2]

In Formula 1, Webber raced consistently against drivers of the highest calibre. He finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton on 40 occasions and ahead of Nico Rosberg 75 times, though he typically finished behind Fernando Alonso in their head-to-head encounters. He was closely matched with Jenson Button, an established professional and multiple champion across Formula 1 and Super GT. Red Bull, his primary team across 129 of his 279 career starts, fielded 131 race wins with its strongest driver being Max Verstappen, a generational talent. His 2016 WEC title came in a season that included Fernando Alonso, an elite professional then competing in the same championship.