He's older and wiser
BY JAMES BUCKLEY
On the verge of his 10th season at the top of world motor sport, Mark Webber's Formula One debut in 2002 seems a million miles away.
Back then the bright-eyed 25-year-old from Queanbeyan drove a Minardi, a vehicle largely inferior to the majority of its competitors, but one he still managed to steer into fifth on debut at the Australian Grand Prix.
The rest of the year was a learning curve for Webber who at the time was one of the youngest drivers in the sport, and the two championship points he collected on home soil was his only contribution to the drivers championship that season.
A decade on, Webber will start the competition as the fourth-oldest driver, younger only than Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli.
At the other end of the spectrum, highly rated pair Sergio Perez and Jamie Alguersuari will race this year. Both were born in 1990, when Webber was at Karabar High School.
On face value, the balance of power in F1 appears to be shifting towards young drivers.
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest drivers champion in 2010 when he won the title aged 23 years and 133 days.
The German broke Lewis Hamilton's record of 23 years and 301 days, set just two seasons before.
But Webber felt his window of opportunity to win a championship was still wide open, and didn't believe young drivers were starting to dominate the sport.
''It's just a coincidence that there has been two young guys in race-winning cars, and we haven't seen the 25 other [young] guys that failed on the way to F1 trying to achieve what Lewis and Sebastian achieved in the sport,'' Webber told The Canberra Times.
''Both championships won by both those guys went down to the last race, and were competing against guys in their 20s and 30s.
''The average age has dropped a little in the last 10 years and that has its pros and cons.
''The advantage for the young guys is that people generally like to see them do well and there's nothing wrong with that.''
Next weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will be Webber's 158th start behind the wheel of an F1 car.
----------------
It's from 19 mar 2011 and I thought very interesting.
source:
www.canberratimes.com.au 
