New Centrale article: Marking Webber

[eytl]

Hi everyone,

Another one of the articles we were planning is now up - a Centrale article assessing Mark Webber's career and his strengths and weaknesses as a driver, in the wake of his departure from F1 for sports cars.

A link to the article is on the main page of the website; otherwise you can access the article from the Centrale index or at this link:

http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/webber/index.html

Hope you enjoy the read. There was a lot more that could have been said, but I didn't want to make the article too long or soppy. No doubt not all of you will agree with my opinions - let us know what you think!

Cheers,
Enoch

[watka]

Nice to hear your thoughts Enoch.

My personal view is that his best years were wasted at Williams. He clearly had the talent and a considerable amount of raw pace at that time, but the car let him down too often when he should have had a few wins, which could have given him a real platform for a great career. By the time he got to Red Bull, he was still fast but you felt that he had to work harder for it, which is perhaps amongst other reasons why he challenged for the title in 2010 but not the following years.

[DanielPT]

Well, my opinion certainly sits in the middle of the polar opinions you presented. I reckon though that the difference between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel only got worse because while these rules suited Vettel more and more, it hurt Mark even more than it suited Vettel. What I think Webber lack, at least during F1 and that might explain why he have not won more, is consistence. He was mighty in some races, those that suited him, but elsewhere or when he was just off (like Korea 2010) he just lost more points than other contenders. It is hard to make up like that. Still, he was one hell of a racer in one era of F1 that just couldn't make the jump to another era. I will certainly miss him but he might have retired a year too late...

[AdrianSutil]

A point you guys make in is how honest he is/was about his skill in F1. He was good, but never quite good enough sadly. His chance was 2010, after that Vettel stepped it up a gear.

[mario]

Nice to hear your thoughts Enoch.

My personal view is that his best years were wasted at Williams. He clearly had the talent and a considerable amount of raw pace at that time, but the car let him down too often when he should have had a few wins, which could have given him a real platform for a great career. By the time he got to Red Bull, he was still fast but you felt that he had to work harder for it, which is perhaps amongst other reasons why he challenged for the title in 2010 but not the following years.

I do agree that Webber did end up in a situation where he would be at the wrong teams at the wrong time - and when he did finally make it to the right team at the right time, he had probably peaked in his performance and was facing much tougher opposition than before.

Some of the comments about him do kind of mirror what Moss once said about Graham Hill - whilst he might not have been the most talented driver of his generation, his determination was such that he found ways to work through his problems in order to succeed where other drivers might have simply given up. However, that aspect of his behaviour also became his weakness when demoralised - in the 2010 Korean GP, his dejection and reluctance was such that it was almost as if he had mentally accepted that he would crash long before he hit the barriers.

As an aside, bringing up Webber's performance in fast, sweeping corners is interesting because it does tie in with recent comments that Newey made in the wake of Webber's retirement, where Newey stated that he felt Webber's feedback on aero developments was superior to Vettel's, although Vettel was superior when it came to assessing mechanical performance in lower speed corners.

[Benetton]

Should've been a Alonso-Webber pairing at Renault in 2005, 2006.

[BigG80]

A fair assessment of Webber there Enoch. I'm going to miss him being on the grid although as you and others have said, current F1 didn't suit Mark at all and it was getting further away from how he likes to race. We can only hope that the new regulations allow the hard chargers back into the game but it looks doubtful.

I still remember the excitement of watching Mark's charge at Monaco in the Williams until his engine blew. I was convinced he was going to win that race and it was at that time that I really started to think of him as a good driver. His record is one that many a driver will be envious of and I hope he does well at Le Mans going forward.

[SgtPepper]

My personal view is that his best years were wasted at Williams. He clearly had the talent and a considerable amount of raw pace at that time, but the car let him down too often when he should have had a few wins, which could have given him a real platform for a great career. By the time he got to Red Bull, he was still fast but you felt that he had to work harder for it, which is perhaps amongst other reasons why he challenged for the title in 2010 but not the following years.

Agreed. I also think Enoch summarises it perfectly comparing Webber's mental state to Button's narrow set up window.

I'll always admire his incredible ability at wheel to wheel racing, which alongside raw pace is how I personally measure of driving skill. It's a shame he got a raw deal at Red Bull, and wasn't able to adapt to the new regulations. Also, I'll never understand why it was he never figured out his starts, when its such a crucial aspect of F1. I really hope he has more fun at Le Mans.

[Paul Hayes]

Nice piece, as always from this excellent website.

[dinizintheoven]

The BBC have now put up their equivalent of this Centrale article, not written by Andrew Benson (to the relief of many). In a way I'm glad I dug into the comments to unearth this:

He had the best car on the circuit (a strong second best even if you were to admit vettel was favoured) for 5 years (Red bull were stronger than brawn in 2009) and yet never finished higher than 3rd with just 9 wins.

He does whine an awful lot. Saying he should have been up there. Should he? Do you see drivers who were much more marginalized like Barrichello and Massa at Ferrari complain as much?

Such a terrifyingly short memory. Massa's unleashing what he really thinks about his time at Ferrari in the latest Autosport, and as for Rubens, there will be a lot of blah blah blah blah blah and he doesn't want to hear that.