Mark Webber started the season with a badly broken leg but the Red Bull veteran could become the most unlikely of Formula One champions
Wisdom comes from adversity," Mark Webber says coolly, his matter-of-fact Australian accent making him sound less like an aspiring sage than an old drinking buddy becoming suitably philosophical at the end of a long night. But, deep into the third hour of our own session, Webber remains brilliantly clear-headed and engaging. It helps that, over lunch at his home high up in the rolling hills above Nice on the Côte d'Azur, French sunshine and soft cheese take the place of a dimly lit bar and hard booze. Webber also has a permanent bump the size of a golf ball at the base of his right leg as a reminder of his own adversity over the last year.
His central role in a remarkably unpredictable Formula One season was almost obliterated when he suffered a severe break to his leg and fractured his shoulder after he was hit by a car while cycling in his own charity challenge last November. But even as he rubs his damaged leg, still held together by a metal rod that will only be removed after the final race in Abu Dhabi this November, Webber's thinking stretches further back.
"You don't learn much when you're winning," he says with a grin, acknowledging that his first victory in Formula One only arrived in his 131st race, and eighth year of trying, at the German Grand Prix in July. The preceding years had been a lonely grind in the middle or near the back of the grid as Webber drove hard for a variety of struggling teams.
"If you drive poor cars for two or three years there's a danger you'll be gone from the sport," Webber stresses. "It's a merciless business but, of course, there are guys who have the talent and the resilience to hang in during those difficulties. Those are the drivers that survive and grasp the opportunity when it comes. Look at Mika Hakkinen – who went a hundred races and then won a world championship. Maybe that's what's happened to Jenson [Button] and me this year. We've survived some tough times and we're now in the hunt for the title."
In contrast Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion, has endured a disappointing year, with the initially woeful performance of his McLaren being accompanied by an admission that he had lied to race officials in Australia. His predecessor as world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, has also raced fitfully and his and Ferrari's season has been overshadowed by the freakish accident that almost ended Felipe Massa's career. There have been numerous other problems off the track, from the usual controversy surrounding Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley to a new accusation that last season Renault ordered Nelson Piquet to purposely crash his car to stop a race.
The sporting duel between Button and Webber, and their unheralded teams at Brawn and Red Bull, has been much more uplifting. Webber's win at the Nürburgring came in the midst of an exhilarating surge which took him on to the podium in five out of six successive races and made him a serious contender for the drivers' championship. The streak has since broken and he finished ninth, and pointless, in the last two races preceding today's Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Webber is 21.5 points adrift but the surprising nature of this season continued as Button, looking increasingly twitchy, finished seventh in Valencia and crashed early at Spa.
Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel, the respective team-mates of Button and Webber at Brawn and Red Bull, have enhanced their own title aspirations. The season, with five races left, has boiled down to a battle of fascinating uncertainty.
"It's incredible how it's swung back and forth," Webber says, "but in the middle of the season I scored more points than anyone and that was a fantastic phase. We've now got to do it at the juicy end of the year. One of us four will win the title but we're also racing Kimi and Lewis. The points are going to be more evenly spread and, with Ferrari and McLaren coming back, it's harder to close the gap on Jenson. But if you have a great weekend and some of the other guys have a rough one then it can swing back your way. It's still wide open."
Today, after qualifying 10th on the grid, with Button starting sixth, Webber has to replicate his mid-season dazzle to have a realistic chance of remaining in the championship race. "Monza is important and, with their teams being the only two to have Kers, Kimi and Lewis could be potent. But we'll do OK and, whatever happens, I just hope I'm in with a sniff going into the last race."
The pressure on Button, meanwhile, is increasing. In a telling illustration of the doubts swirling around the British driver, Massa suggested that Button has buckled. "Jenson has gone down because of the pressure," Massa said while recovering in São Paulo from his life-threatening accident. "It's the only reason. The pressure has had a big impact on his mind."
Webber, intriguingly, believes differently. "I've always said Jenson won't lose the championship by blowing it. If anything the team will lose the championship. Brawn are stretched with their smaller resources and, bloody hell, it's amazing how quickly we forget where they came from. It's incredible they've led the whole season in a white [sponsor-less] car."
Brawn were born out of the despair of Honda's sudden withdrawal from Formula One. That shock departure left Button, Barrichello and Ross Brawn, their team principal, facing the prospect of being shut out of racing until just a few weeks before the season started. But they found a way to race again and, as Webber explains: "Ross and Adrian Newey [Red Bull's technical director] are better than anyone at adapting to the new regulations that came in this season. Brawn were incredibly quick at the start."
Button won six of the first seven races but Webber accepts that the psychological balance has shifted. "Jenson is very experienced, but the dynamics have changed. Part of him must think he can only go backwards and it would be disastrous to lose a once massive lead. Maybe the length of time he's been leading has become a factor."
Webber nods at the suggestion that Button would be haunted forever if he lost this championship. "Of course. It would be very unusual. But it's still hard to believe Jenson won't get some podiums before the year is out. If he does that then it's obviously going to be very difficult to beat him."
Such candour is typical of Webber – one of the warmest and most unaffected professional sportsmen you are ever likely to meet. His rounded personality has also helped him deal with the variable moods of his team-mate, the gifted but prickly young Vettel. Their relationship did not begin well when, in 2007, while Vettel was driving for Toro Rosso, the German shunted Webber off the track during the Japanese Grand Prix. Webber was furious because, despite having vomited inside his helmet earlier in the race, he had swept into second place behind Hamilton.
"It's kids," he ranted afterwards, venting frustration at Vettel's inexperience. "They fuck it all up."
The 33-year-old Webber, in the warm sunshine of his French retreat, grins wryly. "I was massively disappointed in him and he was petrified. But we eventually had a chat about it and he's grown up a lot since then."
Vettel still sulked a few months ago when Webber outdrove him in Turkey to finish second behind Button. "He was pissed off but since then he's learnt to deal with someone who can do a better, or similar, job to him. That's a credit to him – but we're both competitive beasts and we've had some tough meetings.
"Red Bull have done a phenomenal job backing us both but it does create some stress. Imagine how it is for the engineers as well. My engineers are for me. His engineers are for him. And in the middle we've got the mechanics doing all the pit stops. My gearbox guy does Sebastian's fuelling so we have to stay sensible and not do anything that would hurt the team."
At Spa, a mistake from one of Webber's team forced him to incur a time penalty after an "unsafe release" from the pit lane. "That drive-through really cost us," he says with a sigh. "I drove really well and we were on course for quite a few points. But with the field being so tight now you can't easily recover a 15-second penalty. But as long as they don't make the same mistake twice, and it's not intentional, I can live with it. Of course I don't want any of these other three guys to become world champion ahead of me but if it does happen then I'm not going to make a shopping list of excuses. Excuses get you nowhere."
That blunt determination helped Webber after his leg fracture last November, which was so bad it drew comparison with the injury that nearly ended the Arsenal player Eduardo's career in football. "The bone in my leg was not jutting out as far as Eduardo's but they were similar fractures," he admits. "If I had been a footballer I would still not be playing now. I would have been out at least a year."
Webber's rise this season seems even more remarkable – for that accident happened just 11 weeks before he returned to pre-season testing. "Naivety is a great thing because you really don't know what you're taking on," Webber says. "I just knew this was a bloody important season, with Vettel coming and the car looking competitive, and so I forced myself back. The leg was nowhere near healed but I had to put on a front. It was exhausting and, at night, once I closed that hotel door, it was really tough. The surgeons had taken out one of the screws, to stimulate the fractured side, and I couldn't walk properly. I probably should have been on crutches getting to and from the car. But that would've been a disaster. The messaging is all wrong."
Yet, for a sport that shuttles between beleaguered controversy and bloodless politicking, there could hardly be a better message than a driver as amiable and intelligent as Webber racing for the championship. His unlikely tilt at the title is one of the sporting stories of the year, and it would become unforgettable should he remain in contention for the rest of this strange but compelling season.
"I'm trying, mate," Webber says, laughing softly. "I'm trying real hard."
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