Mark Webber

I'm a little puzzled as to why Webber doesn't have a page in the teams and drivers section, as Webber is a pivotal figure in the story upfront. There are questions that need to be asked. Why can Vettel win, and Webber struggle to get on the podium fighting Ferraris and McLarens? Why is the man that was noted as a good qualifier unable to get near Vettel? Did the leg break in late 2008 do him serious performance damage? and What should Webber do in the near future?

Mark Webber. Over to you...
 
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If Webber genuinely believes he can't hack it any more then the right thing to do should be to leave F1. If you're not in it for the chance to win, it's time to hang up the helmet.
 
While watching Mark today, I really enjoyed his dice with Hamilton but couldn't help thinking a little more patience on the run down to turn one would have lead to Webber passing Hamilton on the way in to turn 3.

It appeared to me that the speed difference between Webber's Red Bull and Hamilton's Mclaren coming off the last corner was pretty big, especially with Webber and Hamilton hitting the KERS button. As a result of this Mark always felt he was in some sort of position to pass going into turn one. He therefore pulled off line and onto the marbles and rubbish on the dirty side of the track, failed to get the optimum line through turns 1 and 2 and watched Hamilton, on the racing line and with a great car beneath him, pull away with ease and open a gap to great for DRS to make up.

Every time I watched Webber do the same thing I wondered what he was up to. Could it have been that the speed difference was so great each time that Webbers only options were to brake early to avoid going into the back of Hamilton or stick it over to the left and get out of the way?

Either way, it was pretty clear that an overtake into turn one wasn't on and that this was seriously harming Webbers chances of sticking with Hamilton through turns 1 and 2 and costing him on the long run down into three.

Any thoughts anyone?
 
Yeah I think he should have saved up more KERS for the run to Turn 3 (it's actually meant to be Turn 4 but), he seemed to keep sizing up the same move, either down into Turn 1 or down to the big long straight, think he was relying on DRS too much.
 
Maybe. Anyway I was very impressed with his driving today. It was clearly a very difficult and battle and he nearly pulled off that pass after the pit stop but the DRS zone was ridiculous. I got the impression that it was Mark's use of KERS that kept him in position to attack but the DRS couldn't be activated early enough to provide the advantage he needed. It did appear to me that he didn't seem to try varying his approach but having thought about he probably had no real choice. If he had tried saving the KERS to use on a different part of the circuit he may well have lost touch with Lewis breaking free of any tow that Mark was making use of.

From a team perspective, his keeping Lewis on the defensive was a massive service to Sebastian, so all in all, I think he did the perfect job for Red Bull.
 
cider_and_toast said:
Any thoughts anyone?
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Yes. A big portion of his 'fate' (for lack of a better word) was decided when he pitted just as Hamilton pitted. If he had stuck in one more lap in free air, he might have jumped Lewis in the pitstops.

You could say RBR could have brought him either earlier or later, but they wouldn't have known when Lewis was stopping...or you could say that Webber could have made the call as soon as he saw Lewis veer off. Other drivers this year have made their calls (Vettel, Monaco; Button, Hungary) which won them the race. You could call it "luck".

Anyway, it (HAM v WEB) provided great entertainment, especially when you're up in this part of Canada at 3 or 3:30 in the middle of the night.

Vettel sorted Hamilton out early into T4 on Lap 1 without DRS when they were on fairly equal footing. Webber couldn't sort out Hamilton on un-equal footing (i.e. Hamilton suffering from understeer and backing up Webber into Button and then Alonso).

That's the way the cookie has crumbled for Vettel and Webber this year.

10-0

A far, far cry from the 4-2 in 2009 and the 5-4 in 2010.

Ouch!
 
cider_and_toast said:
Any thoughts anyone?
Click to expand

I thought Webber was quite close in T1-2 several times, but the Red Bull's terrible traction out of those corners compared to the McLaren created a deficit that the DRS couldn't manage to close by the end of the straight. I actually found the difference in the way the two cars came out of that corner quite startling.
 
Galahad said:
I thought Webber was quite close in T1-2 several times, but the Red Bull's terrible traction out of those corners compared to the McLaren created a deficit that the DRS couldn't manage to close by the end of the straight. I actually found the difference in the way the two cars came out of that corner quite startling.
Click to expand

In addition, Lewis was advised to use all of his KERS right after T2 apex as defence against DRS.
 
Galahad said:
I thought Webber was quite close in T1-2 several times, but the Red Bull's terrible traction out of those corners compared to the McLaren created a deficit that the DRS couldn't manage to close by the end of the straight. I actually found the difference in the way the two cars came out of that corner quite startling.
Click to expand

Yeah absolutely. That's why I assumed it must have been a result of Webber getting marbles and rubbish all over his tyres by going off line into turn one each time. As you said G, it was remarkable the traction that the Mclaren could find through those turns compared to the Red Bull.
 
RasputinLives said:
Young guns get the knives out for Mr Webber

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/18227/7322697/Vergne-I-could-match-Webber-s-results

Bit of cockyness is always good to see in a race driver - as long as its not too much. Would love to see Red Bull say 'prove it' to him but we'll just have to wait I think
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So they have Vergne, Riccardo, Algarsuari and Buemi as supposed replacements. Webber would be happy to give way to Ricciardo being a fellow Aussie

However the name Lewis Hamilton is above them on the list still to shatter their dreams
 
Helmet does seem to praise Hamilton a lot which is something he has not done to other drivers in the paddock or Webber for that matter
 
Mark Webber posted this on Twitter earlier this year, showing his potential career path options in 1995 when he was working out how to make it to F1. It's quite interesting to see how much the various series cost, I'd imagine it would be a lot more expensive now.

4qoa4y
 
he obviously chose the UK path as he won the FF festival in 1996 and whats missing on there was GT championship as he actually was on Mercedes books in their young driver programme and I think was involved in 1998 Le Mans race when the car took off on the straight as well.

But he left Mercedes once he got Flavio as his manager to sort out a career path from F3000 to F1 ...he was Arrows tester supposedly as part of Portman F3000 team which never worked out
 

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