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2016 Winner 8. Porsche Motorsport

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911uk Porsche Awards 2016

Category: Porsche Motorsport


The voting is complete and taking the total of all submitted votes, the 2016 Winner of Category 5 : Porsche Motorsport is..

Mark Webber

After starting his career in Australia racing Formula Ford and Formula F4000, Mark Webber came over to Britain in 1996 and won the Formula Ford Festival. He joined Mercedes for 1998 to contest the FIA GT championship and was runner-up with five wins. Webber got his first F1 test with Arrows the following year and also tested for European Racing, who he would join in Formula 3000 the following year.

On his official website Webber lists six moments to remember and a single 'forgettable moment' – Le Mans 1999. He contested the 24-hour race for Mercedes but was fortunate to escape without serious injury after two shocking crashes in practices, both caused by instability in the CLK racing car. Mercedes withdrew during the race after Peter Dumbreck suffered a similar accident, flipping on the main straight at 200mph.

Webber made his Formula One debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. His first F1 win was with Red Bull at the 2009 German Grand Prix. By 2012 with Webber partnering Vettel, outperforming him in the early season. Webber was also a long-term director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, the Formula One drivers' union.

From F1 to WEC

On 27 June 2013, Webber announced he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season. He began to race for Porsche in 2014, on a long-term deal, racing LMP1 Sportscars in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

After 15 years, it was an older and more mature Webber who returned to La Sarthe in 2014. His incident-packed experience from 1999 seemed far away, but the much wanted victory has continued to evade him: In 2014, as he was driving in second place with only two hours to go when a bang from the powertrain shattered the dream.

2015 FIA WEC Champion

In 2015, the 919 that he again shared with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley was running in the lead during the first third of the race, only to have a time penalty to relegate them down the field. The trio launched a charge through the field to claim second place. In 2016 it was a damaged water pump that prevented him and his teammates from winning Le Mans.

The biggest triumph was achieved at a nerve-wracking finale in November 2015 in Bahrain: both throttle barrel levers were broken and had to be locked at full throttle. The 919 was only able to finish the race thanks to outstanding engineering performance in the background and a driver sensitivity that looked superhuman. The title was at stake. 'To have scored my first World Championship title with Timo and Brendon with Porsche means a great deal to me," says Webber who never talks about this feat without mentioning his teammates.

In 2016 he was part of the Porsche race team that picked up the 4 race victories in the 2016 FIA WEC Championship. In October 2016, Mark Webber announced that his retirement from motor racing at the end of the 2016 season in order to take up a representative role with Porsche.

First Porsche was a Turbo model

His affinity to Porsche, however, is nothing new. As a teenager he drove a 911, borrowed from a friend, and when he bought his own first Porsche he went straight for a Turbo model. Today the collection includes a 918 Spyder, a 911 R, a GT3 RS (991), a 911 GT2 RS (997), a 911 GT3 RS 4.0, a 1954 356 Cabriolet and a 1974 2.7 Carrera.

www.markwebber.com

www.porscheawards.co.uk
 

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