The Puzzle.
I don't like the guy. The reason? I subscribe to the premise that you make you're own luck. Webber always seemed to be lacking that final element that makes a top driver truly great.
When he first came to F1, I was excited by the prospect of seeing an Australian win. The last one to do that (Alan Jones) was someone I had always wanted to punch every time his stupid face appeared on channel 9 right next to that other idiot Daryl Eastlake. Along comes Webber and the prospect of Australian driver competing at the top level of motorsport. Someone to allow me to exercise the little patriotism I have.
After sometime it had become apparent Webber was just a "nearly man" not a "really man". There were too many disappointments, too many mistakes and too much bad luck. Sure the car makes a difference, but if you're in F1 as a complete driver then you need skills other than driving, you need the business acumen to have a chance at one of the better seats. In short you need to know how to sell yourself. And perhaps this is where Mark had been lacking, he's a "nice guy", he doesn't seem to carry an ego the size of a star system. He's not as much of an obsessive compulsive as say the Shumacher's, the Senna's, and the Antony Hamilton's of this world. To put it simply, he's more laid back than his peers. In the white heat of F1 it just doesn't cut it.
As more time and disappointments came and went I finally gave up on the idea of seeing an Australian win a post modern F1 GP. After that Webber was more of an insult, than a source of hope, to my ever dwindling reserves of national pride.
In the off season last year Webber suffered an incident that in hindsight, may have provided what was lacking. He was very nearly killed in a head on collision between a car and his bicycle in Tasmania during a charity (read nice guy) cycling event . After being reported in a serious condition and airlifted to hospital, it soon became apparent that Webber would miss Winter testing and his F1 career could be over.
It would seem that Webber not only suffered physically but mentally. The emotional trauma, a resultant lack of confidence, and a change of perspective have lead Mark to overcompensate by normal standards. I think it's brought his ego up to the level it really needed to be to extract results from the world of F1. He obviously became obsessed with making a full recovery, and as is often the case with high achieving people, surpassed his own abilities through sheer determination.
After 8 years, finally he has joined the winning circle, and I think he did it with style. I watched all of FP1, 2 & 3, Qualifying and the entire race with no adverts. From FP1 on Friday, Webber treated the new Nurburgring as his and his alone. He was hungry and willing to fight, in short he was willing to be a little bit nasty in order to take what he thought was rightfully his. You could see it in his driving. "Aggressive", is not a word you would normally use to describe Webber. It is now, and the result speaks for itself! He seems to have allowed his desire to win outpace his more diplomatic self.
It has been leading this way all year, you could smell something was up, and I had already begun to soften my stance on the man's lack of potential. Right now, I have to say having been a doubter, I am more than pleased to see Mark take his first win in F1.
A job well done and a win totally deserved. And here is to many more in the future.
I will hear nothing of the competition being "held up" behind Massa, Brawn cocked it up themselves, 3 stops was madness, especially considering the fact they would have been aware of the the fuel on board the Ferraris, and the fact they had KERS off the line.
As for the previous comments in this thread about Hamilton not being up to scratch I think that Hamilton is a fully fledged champion with an unusual and intermittent streak of self doubt, probably a lot to do with his age and his father suffering from OCD.
L8r
