Reporter: Tara Brown
Producer: Stephen Taylor
We don't want to put the mockers on the bloke but there's a lot of talk that 2010 is going to be Mark Webber's year.
Australia's only Formula One driver is not only at the top of his game, he's finally racing a really fast car.
And when we say fast we mean 340 kilometres an hour kind of fast.
The man is a speed machine and filthy rich because of it.
But, as Tara Brown discovered, Mark Webber isn't a life-in-the-fast-lane kind of guy.
He's just a boy from the bush who loves his mates, loves his girl and loves the roar of engines in the morning.
PHOTOS: See the photos of Mark and the new RB6
Story contacts:
For more information on Mark Webber go to:
www.markwebber.com
Full transcript below:
STORY - TARA BROWN: Barcelona is the perfect place for a quiet day off. But for Mark Webber, the Spanish countryside and petrol fumes are calling, and there's nothing quiet about his day away from Formula One.
TARA BROWN: I thought we were getting away from the noise today?
MARK WEBBER: Well, you learn very quickly with me Tara, there is always noise. Boys and their toys, ay?
TARA BROWN: Don't you feel any pressure to go that fast?
MARK WEBBER: I won't be going that quick, don't worry at all.
TARA BROWN: Put Mark behind the wheel of almost anything, and he can't help himself. He is supposed to be relaxing with friends, but this is a race car, and this is a race track, and he wants to conquer both.
TARA BROWN: Did you break it?
MARK WEBBER: No, more petrol.
TARA BROWN: Oh.
MARK WEBBER: It reminds me of the old days again, "Dad! More petrol."
TARA BROWN: From the dinky dirt buggy to the Formula One car, and there is no chance of running out of petrol these days. It's the flashiest of car racing, the most expensive of sports, and this year, Mark Webber wants to be world champion. And at 340km/h in his Red Bull racing car, he might just do it.
MARK WEBBER: I'm a normal sort of bloke away from the track. When you, of course, put the helmet on, you're sort of a different person, and you do get very, very, competitive and you care about your results.
TARA BROWN: Did you ever, or do you ever, doubt your ability?
MARK WEBBER: You're very, very sure that you're doing the best job. How can someone be doing a better job than me? You know, how can somebody be quicker than me? But that's the way you're probably wired up, you know.
MARK WEBBER: It's certainly a pretty vicious bit of kit. It looks like a toy car, obviously, but when they're up and running, yeah, they really are phenomenally quick.
TARA BROWN: True Grand Prix fans would give anything to be standing here in the Red Bull pit garage with a sneak peak of the RB6, the team's secret weapon for this years championship.
MARK WEBBER: Everything is being tested, absolutely everything. You know, we've got engines, we've got tyres.
TARA BROWN: Today, at the Catalunya track, just outside Barcelona, Mark and team-mate Sebastian Vettel are the test pilots .
MARK WEBBER: Look at him coming along here, you might want to block your ears.
TARA BROWN: OK. Putting into practice the hard off-season work of the Red Bull team's engineers and mechanics. If everyone gets their bit right... Wow, was that good?
MARK WEBBER: No, that wasn't good.
TARA BROWN: ..and with a bit of luck tossed in, this car will be faster and more reliable than all its competitors. So every individual who is part of the team feels a responsibility? If they're slow, they can ruin the day for you?
MARK WEBBER: Yes, it's a Grand Prix. Unfortunately, we don't have any rewind buttons. It's not like TV, where you can do it again.
TARA BROWN: Oh, we never do it again! Pretty soon, it's Mark's turn in the testing hot seat, and there is no laughing now. This is big business. Just this one team alone costs several hundred million dollars a year to run, so Mark needs to be at his focused best. Here he comes... ..and there he goes. This being a test day here in Spain, there are no people in the stands, but Mark Webber is driving as if the place is full. Not everyone can be a Formula One driver, obviously, what makes you able to do it?
MARK WEBBER: I think the desire, the tenacity, I suppose, to just not give up, to keep pushing down those fences that are there. And people that constantly keep writing you off, obviously that's just fuel on the fire, really, and keep that drive and the end goal, really.
TARA BROWN: To be a top Formula One driver is a dream of many that is denied to most. Mark was a kid from Queanbeyan, good on go-carts, with a dad who encouraged his need for speed.
RACE ANNOUNCER: Webber dives straight down the inside, with superb car control on the brakes.
TARA BROWN: At 19, he moved to England for more experience and teamed up with manager Ann Neal. She was quick to see his commercial appeal.
TARA BROWN: How did you pitch someone who was untested?
ANN NEAL: Oh, I had to do it on his looks. I did, seriously. We got him into a studio with lights and everything, because I didn't have any results to hang onto the door for him, he had nothing, really.
TARA BROWN: And, despite their 13-year age difference, it wasn't long before Mark and Ann's business partnership turned personal. Well, dare I ask, how did it go from professional to private?
ANN NEAL: We got on well, and it just... ..I suppose it was a natural progression, really.
MARK WEBBER: We started holding hands and it went from there.
TARA BROWN: You feel very comfortable talking about this, don't you?
MARK WEBBER: That's fine, you know, it's ah...
ANN NEAL: Let me see you blush.
MARK WEBBER: The birds and the bees happen, you know, I mean, yeah, it just worked out that we were obviously pretty fond of each other and then it went from there.
TARA BROWN: Home for Mark and Ann is a beautiful estate in the English countryside. While around the corner, Mark has even achieved that great Australian dream of owning his own pub. It's called The Stag, and it's part of his retirement plan.
ANN NEAL: And here's one of our locals, Nigel.
TARA BROWN: So if the racing career comes to an end, you can come here and prop up the bar.
MARK WEBBER: Yeah, I try and prop the bar up, but I'm not a very good drinker at the moment, so need to improve on that when I stop racing, I think.
TARA BROWN: Further up the road is Mark's work place - Red Bull Racing headquarters. Do you actually know what any of these machines do?
MARK WEBBER: I know they're pretty trick and they can build things pretty quick.
TARA BROWN: He might be the public face of the team, but it takes 450 others to make him, and the car, stand out. It's tiny. I just really cannot get over how little this is.
MARK WEBBER: Yeah, it's certainly built for speed not for comfort. Its very much a tight package for me to get into.
TARA BROWN: It's a sleek operation run by Christian Horner, Mark's boss and great supporter. Is there anything particularly Australian that he brings to racing?
CHRISTIAN HORNER: Well, his accent. Ah, and the fact that the end of every sentence ends with 'mate'. Even, remarkably, on the radio. It's quite funny, because they ask him how the balance of his car is at speeds of over 200mph plus he's, you know, 'Well, I've got a bit of understeer, mate.'
TARA BROWN: Driving for Red Bull, 2010 is being touted as Mark Webber's big year, but his career almost ended before it began. In 1999, before Formula One, he was asked to drive in the famous Le Mans race for Mercedes Benz. It should have been his big break, but it almost broke him. At 300km/h his race car literally took off.
MARK WEBBER: When people say that it all flashes before you, you know, everything slows down, you think it's going to be your time to not be around anymore, then that's exactly what happened.
TARA BROWN: So as time slowed right down for you, did you actually think that this was the end?
MARK WEBBER: Oh, yeah.
TARA BROWN: Remarkably, it happened again to Mark a day later. And then a team-mate flipped a third car before Mercedes finally admitted to its bad design. Strangely enough, Mark's worst crash happened a long way away from the car track. What were you doing? Why did you ride into a 4-wheel drive?
MARK WEBBER: God, it was amazing, you know, we were having such a good day. And then I just sort of looked up and saw a car.
TARA BROWN: It was 2008, and at his own cancer charity event in Tasmania, Mark collided with a 4-wheel drive and shattered his leg and broke his shoulder. Could it have been a career ender?
MARK WEBBER: Yeah, absolutely. The bloke upstairs dealt me a pretty tough card that day and so I had to get over it.
TARA BROWN: And get over it he did. Just 7 months later, at the German Grand Prix, driving for Red Bull Racing, Mark Webber scored his first Formula One victory.
MARK WEBBER (in car): Yee-hah! You beauty! Yes, yes, yes!
TARA BROWN: After 8 frustrating years and 130 starts, Mark's elation was completely understandable.
MARK WEBBER: That's from the German Grand Prix from last year.
TARA BROWN: Can I touch it?
MARK WEBBER: Yeah, there you go.
TARA BROWN: And what did that feel like, when you got to hold it?
MARK WEBBER: Oh special, yeah.
TARA BROWN: And the trophies kept coming last year.
MARK WEBBER: When I won Brazil down there, I mean, those trophies aren't the prettiest things in the world but they still mean a lot to us.
TARA BROWN: Now comes the greatest challenge on Mark's list.
MARK WEBBER: Right at the top is trying to win a world title, which is not impossible. I can do it, but you need everything there, so, we'll see how we go this year.
TARA BROWN: This feels a bit like the lives of the rich and famous. Even though Mark hasn't won a world championship yet, it's estimated he still makes about $10 million a year from racing. That makes him our second-highest earning sports star after Greg Norman. You're not uncomfortable about the trappings of your success, are you?
MARK WEBBER: Ah, I must say every time I still get on a private plane I feel not that comfortable with it.
TARA BROWN: Today it's a flight from England to Salzburg, Austria, and a late-night appearance for sponsor Red Bull on Austrian television. In Europe, Mark Webber is very well known. And while he is flattered by the attention, he is really happiest being a homebody with Ann. One of the headlines I read about Mark criticised him for being too tall, too intelligent and too faithful.
ANN NEAL: What, to be a Formula One driver?
TARA BROWN: Yeah, basically. I wasn't sure if I should read, 'too boring' into that.
ANN NEAL: No, he's not boring.
TARA BROWN: Are you sure?
ANN NEAL: I'm absolutely sure he is not boring.
TARA BROWN: So, what we see is what we get? There is No secret playboy going on here?
MARK WEBBER: I'd say so, I'd say it's exactly what you get. Of course, don't get me wrong, I see a nice looking bird you know, it's great to have a look at her you know...
ANN NEAL: What! It works both ways, doesn't it?
MARK WEBBER: Yeah, exactly. It's natural.
TARA BROWN: So you look, do you ever touch?
MARK WEBBER: Of course not. Ah, I'm very, very happy with what I have.
TARA BROWN: It takes a lot of manpower to control the horsepower of a Formula One car, and Mark is probably the fittest driver going around. And at 33, he has to be. He is getting on in the sport, and he knows this year may be his best and last chance to grab the top spot.
MARK WEBBER: I want to be in control of when I do stop. I don't want to be pushed or you don't want to be starting to get blown away by guys you know you shouldn't be getting blown away by.
TARA BROWN: But you're not stepping aside yet?
MARK WEBBER: That's right, no, and I don't like to see drivers stay on longer than they probably should do. That's something which I hope I don't do - and please tell me if I do.
TARA BROWN: I'll give you a call.
