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NEWS
No Le Mans hoodoo for Webber
Le Mans 'ghosts' won't hold back new Porsche WEC number one, Mark Webber...A return to the site of two horrific accidents raises no doubts for freshly annointed Porsche World Endurance Championship (WEC) lead driver, Mark Webber.
Speaking at this week's Phillip Island launch of the all-new Porsche Turbo and Turbo S road models, the Aussie ex-F1 star said Circuit la Sarthe, venue for the Le Mans 24 Hour, held no hoodoos for him. This is despite the fact in his early career he was involved in two horrific racing accidents at the circuit.
Webber was, at the time, a factory driver for Mercedes-Benz. In 1999, at the 24 Hour, Webber and teammate Peter Dumbreck were involved in near identical crashes in which their CLR factory Mercedes-Benz sportscar back-flipped at high speed. In fact, Webber was the victim of two levitations.
Despite the fact, @AussieGrit (Webber's twitter handle) is upbeat about Le Mans and his return there with Porsche.
"Le Mans is a great track. I always enjoy driving there," he told motoring.com.au.
"There's no real demons there for me to get over... That's part of our game – to get back off the canvas and go again... The incidents weren't, you know, my fault – so that's encouraging from a driver perspective to know.
"And Le Mans was actually the making of me, after that... It made my career – so it was a good thing," Webber told motoring.com.au.
"Those shunts actually played a role in me achieving a lot more things," Webber opined.
Webber says it will be business as usual come this year's 24 Hour.
"There's going to be so much other stuff on my plate when I go back to Le Mans, I think when I drive past those [accident] scenes it will just be [driving] through and focussing on the job at hand...
"There were a lot of emotions [when] I was there last time but, you know, it's not going to be something that anyone will notice," he said.
Webber dismissed any suggestion that there was extra pressure on his shoulders given his F1 pedigree and Porsche's high-profile return to the sport.
"Porsche's return is one of the biggest things in motorsport this year... It's [Le Mans] one of the biggest races in the world and [the drivers] are obviously absolute legends in Europe. They're [also] big names.
"I'm super proud to represent the brand. It will take time, I think, for us to get everything in order.
"You don't just turn up at Le Mans, drive around and, and get the champagne. It's an extremely, extremely tough event and that's why they [Porsche] love going to prove their cars there," he stated.
"Le Mans is their [Porsche's] second home... It's very, very exciting."
Pictured: Webber with 919 Hybrid and fellow Porsche driver, Timo Bernhard
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Written byMike Sinclair
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