07/12/2010
NEWS STORY
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Mat Coch writes:
Moving to Williams was supposed to be the move that launched his career as a top line driver, in reality it almost ended it. After his most successful season in Formula One Mark Webber has spoken about his time at the Grove outfit in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.
"I always felt as a driver that I was competitive, and that was really important," said the Australian. "Times got particularly tough during my time with Williams and I had to reassess my goals, but I still had the desire to do well. And I always had the hope things would turn around for me if I kept at it.
"Things were supposed to happen and they didn't," he says of his two season stint with the team. "Not just for me but the team. The team goes through the pain as well, But it is a risky game for the drivers particularly, because if you have too many opportunities that don't work out for you, you can drop off the radar pretty quickly."
A third place in Monaco during his first season with the team in 2005 was his first and only podium for the English squad which he'd hoped would offer him so much more. Only his resolve saw the Australian through as even Webber himself began to have doubts.
"Even when his car was flipping over at Le Mans, even after he broke his leg in Tasmania, the only time Mark questioned whether he could keep doing this was the Williams days," reveals Webber's partner and manager Ann Neale. "During the first year he knew it wasn't going to be pretty and I think the enthusiasm dipped. But he said, and he's right, 'Okay, I'm not going to win in this car, it's not the right package.' So you readjust your goals. That's how you get through it."
Webber believes his time at Williams was part of the learning experience that's made him the race winner he is today. "When you arrive in F1 the bar goes up," he explains. "First you want to finish your first race, then get your first points, then a podium, and then your first win. Yes I went through some very tough times on my way there, but in any career you are not going to be a pro for 12 years and have no hard times at a world level."
After joining Red Bull in 2007 Webber has developed into a front runner, and this year proved he was a title contender. It seems however that relations within the Austrian team are little better than they were at Williams, where he admits to having struggled personally.
Spats with teammate Vettel and the team, highlighted by his "not bad for a number two" comments at Silverstone, have shown a stressed, if not fractured relationship. Further evidence came to light yesterday with the release of Webber's own book detailing the 2010 season. The Australian reveals that a mountain biking accident a weekend before the Japanese Grand Prix left him with a fractured shoulder.
"On the Sunday morning before Suzuka, I got on a mountain bike for the first time since my accident in Tasmania at the end of 2008," he writes in Up Front - 2010, A Season To Remember. "I was riding with a great friend of mine. Suddenly, he crashed right in front of me and I had nowhere to go but straight through the ears of the horse! I suffered what they call a skier's fracture to my right shoulder."
Most interesting is the revelation that Webber neglected to tell the team of his misadventure, keeping the fact he required pain relieving cortisone injections ahead of the Japanese and Korean Grands Prix a secret.
Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has admitted he knew nothing before the release of the book. "It is obviously disappointing that Mark said nothing. It was an injury that did not appear to have any effect on his performance but all the same it would have been nice to know about it."
The fact Webber chose to keep the incident a secret comes as no surprise to some, including Pitpass, who continue to receive signals from Milton Keynes that Webber's future at Red Bull. After a season where tensions between Vettel, the team and himself constantly threatened to boil over it's said Webber will leave the Milton Keynes outfit before the 2011 season gets under way.
Yet having battled for so long to get where he is Webber appreciates the year he had, even if the championship did escape him. After almost a decade in the sport, and when it looked like a race win seemed an impossible dream, to be battling for a championship exceeded even his expectations.
"I wish it had gone like this when I was 24," he continued, "but I think you appreciate things more when you're a little older and I'll go to my grave grateful for the year I've had," he says.
"A lot of young drivers get things much quicker these days," the Australian continued. "Lewis, Sebastian, and a lot of those guys have changed that. They've gone into quick teams immediately in their career. But they never did that in the '80s and '90s. You had to do your apprenticeship through smaller teams.
Now in the twilight of his career, thoughts of retirement aren't far from his mind. "It gets harder as you get old, like with motivation and how much you're prepared to risk.
"To be circulating outside the top 10, making up the numbers, that's not for me. I'll finish when I'm up the top and still competing with the great guys. I've done my apprenticeship."
The question for now is; will he be competing in 2011 at all?