Aussie Grit (42 page)

There is no doubt that in his early years Lewis’s father Anthony played a massive part in shaping his career and getting him going. Anthony also drove some pretty heavy principles and disciplines into his son. Lewis was very quickly onto a rocket-ship and it was an almost vertical trip with McLaren. I think for Lewis’s first few years there he was breathing, eating, drinking the team, living in Woking,
no distractions, and that was evident by the incredible start to his F1 career. The media focus on him in the UK was massive and so was the pressure. Young sportspeople’s biggest challenge is understanding themselves as human beings and steering clear of all the back-slappers. Lewis did go through some tough years as a person when there was a lean patch after his initial success. But he seems to be in a much better place now and more comfortable with who he is. He’s a brave guy; put him in an environment where he has people believing in him and team harmony, and he’s a very handy operator. I like his story, where he came from, and how he got to F1.

One of the young guns most likely to challenge Lewis for world titles in the future is Daniel Ricciardo and it’s great to see the Aussie F1 tradition continuing in such a talented pair of hands. I remember just after he’d been announced as a Toro Rosso driver we invited Dan and his mum, Grace, out for dinner to celebrate Australia Day when we found out he was living fairly close to us and they would be on their own that night. Dan’s from the big Italian community in Perth, Western Australia, and we had a big Ricciardo family dinner one night at the Stag, the pub-restaurant Ann used to own. Dan’s father, Joe, has his own great story about how he came over to the UK and worked in the motor-sport industry as a mechanic for various junior formula teams, which sowed the seeds for Dan’s racing career.

I arranged for my physio Roger Cleary to work with Dan in the lead-up to his first F1 test to ensure that he got through it in the best physical shape possible. Rog rang me up after the first day and said that Dan was smoked but although he was tired and sore they managed to get him
through the second day. The cars back then were a lot more physically draining and harder to hang onto for a long period of time than they are now. Joe rang me up afterwards to say thank you. It was an important 48 hours for Dan to get through and to have a good little medical team there was only going to help him. It’s all turned out very well for him, hasn’t it? I was genuinely happy for Dan when he got the nod to move up to the senior Red Bull team for 2014. As another graduate of the Red Bull Junior Program, he fitted that team like a glove. What he went on to achieve during his first year there was sensational. Winning Grands Prix is not easy so to have three victories under his belt already bodes extremely well for his future. Not only does he have some old-fashioned qualities I’m a fan of, he is a breath of fresh air for F1.

So what makes a good Formula 1 driver? As with most sports it’s down to mind management and composure under pressure. All drivers have the ability to operate in different conditions in a tight envelope of performance month after month, year after year. Consistency is a must, as is being able to concentrate on the task in hand for a long period of time. We’re all competitive, but the top guys are intent on improving: they like the adrenaline, they get a buzz out of managing a dynamic environment and a rush from getting micro-decisions right. To some degree all drivers are arrogant and egotistical. But they’re also proud of where they come from, especially when they are their country’s sole representative. I always wanted my Australian qualities and values to come through and influence the people I was working with, not just something the media and the fans latched onto.

I think what frustrated some of the older-generation drivers (Michael Schumacher, DC, Fernando, JB, me and to a lesser extent, Lewis and Nico) was the huge shift with the new cars and tyres. Past, present or future, all we drivers want to do is go quicker. But after 2011 lap times took a huge drop, which was disappointing because the new regulations weren’t testing us as we’d like. As an F1 competitor, a purist and huge fan of the sport I wanted a category so far ahead of any other that the drivers are intimidated and respectful of driving cars on the limit. We all felt the same, even Michael on his comeback, but we couldn’t talk openly about not enjoying it as much. We would meet each other at the back of the trucks during pre-season testing and laugh about where the sport was going. It might be increasing the show but the stimulation for us was on the slide. It’s good to hear that the powers-that-be are now looking to make the cars more demanding again for the 2017/18 season – the drivers will respond to that and relish the fresh challenges it throws at them.

As for me, I take great pride in what Bernie Ecclestone said when he learned there was a chance I would go to Ferrari. ‘The old guy [meaning Enzo Ferrari himself] would have loved to have Mark in one of his cars.’ Enzo Ferrari and Jack Brabham were two of the greatest figures in the early decades of the World Championship: self-made men, driven by ambition and self-belief, utterly determined to be the best. Jack gave me endless support and advice over the years and I know he took great pleasure in seeing me win some of our sport’s most coveted Grands Prix. It was partly because of him that I decided not to join Ferrari. When he heard the rumours that I might be, he said he would be very disappointed: for him it was the absolute act
of betrayal because they were his motivation – the ones he wanted to beat in his day. It was sad to learn of his death in May 2014.

As I found out when I got to know Bernie a bit more over the years, we share a passion for motorbikes and I love listening to some of his stories about the characters he’s come across. He also has an amazing car collection, which not many people have seen, but Mr E, as he is often known, kindly allowed me to take Dad down for a look. It was a special day for us both. Typical Bernie though: he rang when I got there, said everything was for sale, would I care to make him an offer!

I’ve drawn inspiration from men like Jack Brabham and Steve Waugh for most of my life in sport. I once did, too, from Lance Armstrong. When I first came across him, Armstrong had two faces: one belonged to the multiple Tour de France-winning sports legend, the other to an individual who had faced and beaten the greatest challenge of all, the cancer that seemed certain to kill him.

I met him through a mutual friend, Morris Denton, and the three of us did various bike rides over the years, like the one in Monaco that ended so badly for Morris.

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I didn’t look at F1 as a means to seek fame and fortune. They are happy rewards of the journey I’ve been on, but all I ever wanted was to test myself against the best. For me it’s about representing your country at the highest level and hearing your national anthem on the podium. It was about watching the Prosts, the Sennas and seeing if a kid from Queanbeyan could possibly make it to their level.

Life in the F1 bubble sat uncomfortably with me. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just a normal bloke doing a job that’s a bit different. I’ve travelled the world and seen a lot of amazing places and met a lot of inspirational people. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the privileges that come with my profession. But in the end it’s the people who count most.

I was always very touched by the fans who came to support me. I’d see them at particular venues every year of my career without fail and they would always come with a birthday present or a good luck charm. I’ve been sent some incredible drawings and paintings and I appreciate it as the fans’ way of demonstrating their own passion. Some people travelled a long way to see me compete. They’d wait outside our hotels and I’d enjoy hearing them explain their travels. They might give me a photo album they had put together of me competing and it meant something to me to see how passionate they were about the sport and following my career.

Mind you, there are days when you have more patience to deal with being in the public eye, and days when you don’t. I’ve never forgotten Damon Hill telling me a story about his father, Graham, World Champion in 1962 and 1968, dutifully attending a signing session for fans at the British Grand Prix one year. Graham stayed far beyond the allotted time slot but when he finally stood up to leave the bloke who was next in line said to him, ‘I always thought you were a pillock!’

But the Australian race fans were always brilliant and I’d try to accommodate them as much as I could, even if there were occasions in the last few years where I’d strike a deal with security at the end of a busy day: they’d let me out the far end of the paddock and into my waiting car! You might
not know, if you haven’t been to Melbourne, that adjacent to the F1 paddock is an enclosure where the die-hard fans assemble each year to get photos and autographs of F1 personnel as they head into the paddock. Woe betide any driver, team principal or celebrity who dares to ignore them: you won’t get far before the booing and hissing starts. It’s always very good-natured and generates a bit of banter among everyone. On the way to the circuit each morning, we used to mimic them calling out my name: ‘MAARRKK, MAARKKK, MAARRK’, it was a dead ringer for a murder of crows!

Sometimes it was murder trying to keep everyone else happy as well. Over the years, I was able to give other well-known sportspeople a glimpse of my life inside the F1 paddock and the intensity of the garage in the countdown to the race. Lleyton Hewitt, Michael Carrick, Fabien Barthez, Jason Crump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Layne Beachley, Kevin Pietersen, Freddie Flintoff and numerous Australian cricketers and Rugby League players came to Grands Prix. They were always incredibly sensitive to my race preparations and cautious about invading my personal space, because they are only too familiar with the process themselves. What blew them away every single time was how visible and accessible the drivers are to everyone in the F1 paddock – I know it’s something Bernie has always encouraged – and how we had to run the gauntlet every time we stepped out of our inner sanctum in the team’s hospitality area to cross the paddock to the garages.

Sometimes, particularly at Monaco, where you walk among the public alongside the harbour to get to and from the pits, the drivers simply chose to stay in the garages
or the engineer’s room. What also blew my F1 guests away were the chaotic scenes on the grid with all the hangers-on, TV interviews moments before stepping into the car, and all the distractions we had to manage. I don’t think there’s any other sport where the participants are so much in the spotlight minutes before they get down to competitive business.

The team would always receive requests for TV interviews on the grid and I would generally say yes if it was someone like Martin Brundle or DC, as they’ve been there themselves and know what to ask, but the majority would be declined. Bernie and his entourage would always bring VIP guests onto the grid and introduce them to the drivers, but while we might smile and go through the motions, in reality we were a million miles away in our own little world.

The real world, the world I come from, is light years removed from all that. For all the travelling she has done to watch me race, for example, Mum is still happiest in her home environment in Queanbeyan. She likes nothing better than fussing over her loved ones and the family is her life, especially Leanne, Dean and their three children, who live locally. Mum enjoys coming over to Europe to see me but it’s taken her a while to adjust to international travel and experiencing different cultures.

I know Mum trusted me when I was racing but she struggled to trust some of the other guys I was racing against. I think she was torn: knowing that I was so passionate and driven about my racing, something that had been on my mind since I was 14, she was undoubtedly proud of my focus towards it, but she didn’t like the associated risks. I was quite insensitive to Mum’s feelings about racing, in fact I never really thought about my family in terms of my
risk-taking decisions in that environment. I was selfishly driven and arrogant in that sense but in my late thirties I became more attuned to how concerned Mum was by what I did for a living.

As for Dad, he has always been with me in spirit, and more often than not he’s been right there beside me at the crucial turning-points in my career. He became a familiar and I believe a very popular figure in F1 paddocks around the world; to me it was always so reassuring to know he was around. He knew better than most what it had taken to get me there. His love of sport set me off on my own journey in life; the values he and Mum taught me stood me in good stead every step of the way. Being able to fly Dad up over the Australian coastline in a helicopter is certainly worth a couple of Grand Prix wins to me.

Nowadays my relationship with Leanne is the closest it’s ever been. It’s easier now I’m not in F1 because I’m not so distracted and can make the time for her and her family. While I was in F1, I may have been there physically but mentally I was still focusing on racing. I’ve always got on with my brother-in-law Dean and it’s been great seeing their three kids developing their own interests and hobbies and starting to figure out what they want to do in life. It’s terrific coming back to Australia for a break, but to come back and live is not a priority at the moment: we’ll be juggling our time for a while to come.

I hope all those who have been a part of what we fondly call ‘Team Webber’ will also understand how much their support has meant along the way. I have been privileged to have good, solid people in my life, people I can trust, people who have put in the extra miles for me, people who will
share the good times and the bad. Geoff Donohue down in Australia … Kerry Fenwick who once told Ann she needed her as her PA and has been with us ever since … I have drawn strength and inspiration from all of them.

In my private life my dogs Simba and Shadow have been, without exaggeration, a huge feature of my life. They keep me grounded: they don’t care if I’ve just won Monaco or had the worst day in a cockpit I can ever remember, they just want me to stop messing about and take them out for a run. Their companionship is one of the central features of my life.