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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Blog Zbod I presume that you meant Malaysia, not Spa.

I so then I simply don't see your point. In FP1 Vettel was well down the listings, which actually means nothing, it's free practice. If he needed any help he could always have asked the fastest driver in FP1, Mark Webber. Then in FP2 he was fourth, 0.14 seconds slower than guess who, why, Mark Webber again. Vettel may have talked to the Pirelli people, they my have given him advice but then the same applies to any driver on the grid. They are professionals and would be castigated pretty soon if they behaved otherwise.
 
Mark Webber has had to put up with a lot for his F1 career to get where he is

- he broke his leg and came back from that strongly
- he went airborn and the car could have easily crushed when it landed down

You have to say he has underachieved in having the best car compared to Vettel

- unfortunately he was past his best whereas Vettel is coming to his best and you're seeing the difference

- coupled with the laws of averages seemingly to go against Webber - he probably has decided he can't take risks and show the same commitment, Age has caught up with him
 
Il_leone ... F1 might be the pinnacle of racing ... by the series he is going to would easily be considered more dangerous

He had the last piece of metal removed from his leg some time this year from the training accident four years ago ...
 
Il_leone I disagree with you completely, driving a car for 3 or 4 hours in the middle of the night, in the wet at well over a hundred miles an hour, flying past cars from lesser classes at huge speeds takes a great deal of mental capacity. It's a different kind of racing that requires concentration, consistency and tactical decision making over and above raw speed.
 
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Granted the media is nowhere near as interested in sports cars and as you say, the inter team rivalry is no where near as bad but the mental challenge of driving top level sports cars in endurance racing (the clue is in the title) is every bit as tough as an F1 car.

On top of this, Mark is going to be involved in a lot of development work to get the team up to speed to challenge in a field that for the last few years has been dominated by the likes of Audi so there will be that pressure as well.

In some respects, though to the mass of average F1 fans, Mark Webber will disappear from their radars at the end of this season, he's jumping from the frying pan, into the fire.

The biggest thing he won't have to deal with anymore is the political garbage that surrounds F1.
 
cider_and_toast ... you pretty much sum it up perfectly... you forgot to mention a bunch of the lesser class cars steered around by whole host of part-time drivers as well ... not just the 2 or 3 rooks in a 22 man F1 field ...

Il_leone ... it is different to F1 (which is not as intense as it used to be.... see "managing the rubber") ... but it just as challenging ... with many more variables thrown into the mix ... I really don't think MW gives two shits about the media scrum ... and the team mate rivalry is shared ... so I will give you that, that element will not be as intense ...
 
The modern Le Mans prototype is virtually a formula one car with clothes on. In a 24 hour event each driver in the squad drives the equivalent duration of four 2 hour GP's, two of which will be at night. It is fairly common for a driver to double stint for tactical reasons so the maximum time a driver is allowed in the cockpit is restricted to 4 hours. At Le Mans the prototypes will reach 220mph on two of the three Mulsanne sections and on the run up to Indianapolis. Sports car racing has come a very long way since the days when balancing pace with conserving the car was the rule. These days the drivers drive flat out in their stints unless there is a problem to manage. Throughout all this they will be in a field of around 50 other cars of different categories and will be lapping the slower ones roughly every eight to ten laps.

If that doesn't take concentration and fitness I don't know what does.
 
What Webber needed is to feel loved by his team and at Red Bull he was beginning to feel marginalised. I don't remember any sportscar team where they had problems with their own drivers battling each other for titles

Its the off track issues which should not be as intense for him to deal with so
 

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