Webber recalls his tough ride

In the early years of Formula One racing, the drivers were a diverse group of men with widely varying interests. But none of them came from the homogenised background shared by today’s racers: go-karting as children, racing cars in their early teens, then climbing the lower categories to the top, with very little experience in life beyond their sport until they find themselves at the end of a Formula One career, wealthy and famous -- and lost.

The result is that many of today’s drivers are such perfect professionals that they have little to say beyond the one-line responses provided by their teams and sponsors.

Mark Webber, the Australian driver who left Formula One at the end of 2013 after 12 seasons, never quite fit that picture. In both his public image and in his dealings within the paddock, he was one of the most vocal and expansive drivers. He would say what he thought. And unlike the few others who also spoke their mind, Webber’s responses were rarely bitter, rarely went too far, and were almost always pertinent. So it is no surprise that Webber’s autobiography “Aussie Grit: My Formula One Journey” is a fabulously readable story told in his conversational voice, with the help of Stuart Sykes, an Australian journalist. We find Webber, now 39, saying what he thinks and, in the process, displaying why he seemed so much more human than his contemporaries.

Although he candidly addresses his contentious relationship with Sebastian Vettel, the German driver who won the world title four times while he and Webber were team-mates at Red Bull from 2009 to 2013, how Webber fared once he arrived in Formula One is not the most compelling part of the story. The inspirational tale lies in Webber’s rise from Queanbeyan, a small town in a country that can count the number of influential people it has given to the elite sport on a single hand. (Jack Brabham and Alan Jones are the only world champions from Australia.)

Webber grew up driving tractors, starting at age 10, unlike most of his contemporaries in the series, who at age 4 were already driving go-karts. And while most modern Formula One drivers have had coddled lives, Webber was a country boy, farming and working odd jobs. He delivered pizzas, worked as a ball boy and, once he discovered go-karting as a teenager, worked at a go-kart track, where after work he would stay until 2 am driving the karts himself. Even while racing in England, he needed to earn extra cash as a driving instructor.

He owes his career in no small part to Ann Neal, whom he met in the Formula Ford series in Australia and who had worked extensively in media and promotional work in her native Britain. Neal had been looking for a driver to manage and Webber was there. The two managed to lift the Australian country boy to the highest level of international racing and wealth. They also eventually became a couple in life, too.

“Aussie Grit” charts Webber’s path from his first outings in Formula Ford in Australia, to winning the prestigious Formula Ford Festival in England, to British F3 and not having the money to complete the 1997 season. It follows the shy young man as he was pushed by Neal to speak to Norbert Haug, director of the Mercedes motor sports program. Webber was then asked to replace a driver in the Mercedes programme, before being hired to race full-time in 1998, and Mercedes agreed to pay the rest of his financially strapped F3 season.

In 2000, he returned to single-seat racing, joining the F3000 series. He finished third the first year and was second the next year. In 2002, he was hired to race in Formula One at the Minardi team, which was Australian-owned at the time. In his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, Webber, racing for one of the weakest teams on the grid, finished fifth and was feted like a hero. He went on to win nine Grands Prix, scoring 13 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 42 podiums.