For years Mark Webber was long known as the unluckiest driver in Formula One. However, after breaking his leg and shoulder in a cycling accident just weeks after the end of the 2008 season, Webber's lucklessness finally ran out, paving the way for the most successful season of his career in 2009. Having had long waits to secure his first podium finish, pole position and victory, the improved pace of Red Bull of late has shot him to fame, and is now viewed as one of the top drivers on the grid today.
Like many drivers, Mark enjoyed a humble beginning to his F1 career, racing with the back-marking Minardi team in 2002 in a pressure-free and expectation-free environment. However, any chance of anonymity soon evaporated when he secured a sensational fifth place finish at his home Grand Prix, the season-opener in Melbourne. Scoring the team's first points since 1999, Webber immediately shot to stardom, tipped as a star in the making. Unsurprisingly, the uncompetitive Minardi was unable to reproduce such eye-catching results for the remainder of the season, but not for a lack of effort. Having out-qualified and out-raced team-mates Alex Yoong and Anthony Davidson at every race, Webber deservedly graduated to Jaguar for 2003, hoping the Ford-backed team would prove another step forward in his career.
However, his two-year stint with the iconic brand would prove nothing like the boost he was hoping for. Once again, Webber consistently outpaced his team-mate, but didn't once finish inside the top 5 despite numerous impressive qualifying performances. He twice qualified in third, and qualified inside the top ten on five more occasions. Although reliability wasn't a huge issue, Webber scored points on seven occasions, thanks largely to the newly-introduce points-scoring system. The pace of the Jaguar team would deteriorate further in 2004, as did reliability, meaning Webber could bring home just 7 points over the course of the season, consistently outperforming team-mate Christian Klien once again.
2005 saw Webber move to Williams in what the Australian again hoped would kick-start his career, having failed in his search of a competitive car at Jaguar. Although wins once again alluded him, he was able to bag his first podium finish by taking third at Monaco, behind team-mate Heidfeld and race-winner Räikkönen. With the Williams team unable to keep up with the in-season development of their main rivals, Webber's performance dipped after mid-season, but still managed to score four times in the final half of the year.
The continuing age of manufacturer teams' bottomless budgets took a further toll on Williams in 2006, although in reality the team's poor reliability played as big a part. Webber finished just seven races, three inside the points, retiring 11 times. The most unfortunate of those retirements was when he was racing in a comfortable third in Monaco, looking set for his second podium finish before an exhaust problem ended his hopes. Having already decided to leave the team for 2007, the final nail in Webber's Williams coffin came in the form of a first-lap collision with team-mate Nico Rosberg at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, closing the chapter on an unfulfilled two years at Williams.
Webber returned to his old Jaguar team for 2007, reincarnated as Red Bull, to partner David Coulthard. Although the car occasionally showed quick turns of pace, a lack of consistency marred the team's season. Nevertheless, he was able to secure his second podium finish, with third in Europe, but score points just twice more in another disappointing season.
He returned to consistent top-8 finishes at the beginning of 2008, with the RB4 regularly mixing it with the upper-midfield runners. But, with such a tight and competitive grid, the team soon fell backwards. Towards the end of the year, regular top-ten grid slots became a privilege, and points finishes almost dried up entirely, scoring just three points in the latter half of the year. But with a revolutionary regulations overhaul due for 2009, and the brains of Adrian Newey at Red Bull's disposal, great things were expected over the horizon.
A potential championship-winning season was put in jeopardy before it had begun however, when he broke his leg and shoulder in a cycling accident on November 10, during an annual charity event in Australia. Despite having less than three months to heal his injuries, he returned to test action on February 11, still sporting a noticeable limp, but willing, able and ready to get back behind the wheel. Even without the coveted double decker diffuser, Newey's RB5 was a regular interloper at the front of the field, allowing Webber to take second place in China behind team-mate Vettel, his best finish at the time.
With car improvements coming thick and fast, Webber quickly established himself as a regular podium finisher, taking five in six races mid-season. That run included his debut victory in Germany, when he bounced back from a drive-through penalty to dominate and win from Vettel. Having followed the win with a third place in Hungary, Webber had put himself in serious championship contention.
However, a string of five non-scoring races brought an end to his championship ambitions for the year, as retirements, crashes and a tight field denied him top-eight finishes. But he bounced back from the disappointment in style by taking his second career win in Brazil, leading comfortably once he had dispatched Brawn's Rubens Barrichello during the first round of pitstops. Victory was followed by second place at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as he finished a career-best fourth in the championship. Unlike all of his previous seasons however, Webber was unable to consistently match his team-mate for pace, and more often than not was beaten by young Vettel in the second car.
Despite the poor latter half of the year, Webber has truly marked himself out as a future championship contender, and with Red Bull expected to be in the hunt for championships in future years, there's no telling how well Webber can do. However, even with race victories under his belt, the biggest challenge he will face in the coming years is beating team-mate Vettel, a very tall order by any assertion.
Decade highs:
Maiden victory in Germany 2009, followed by second win in Brazil
Points finish at debut race in Australia 2002
Decade lows:
Retiring from third at Monaco 2006
Unfulfilled two-year tenure at Williams
Equally unfulfilled years at Jaguar
2010s?
More race victories are more than possible for Webber in the coming years, equipment-permitting, while another championship challenge cannot be ruled out either.