For the 2005 season, he was granted an early release from his contract with Jaguar and joined the Williams team, securing his first podium finish at the Monaco Grand Prix.

He left Formula One after 2013 and moved to the World Endurance Championship, sharing a Porsche 919 Hybrid with Bernhard and Hartley in the fully-professional Le Mans Prototype 1 class from the 2014 to 2016 seasons.

Webber represented KHS in athletics and rugby league and did Australian rules football, cricket and swimming after his mother encouraged him to get involved in as many sports as possible.

[8] Webber lives in the UK, in the small Buckinghamshire village Aston Clinton with his wife Ann Neal, his former manager, and is stepfather to her son from a previous relationship.

[14][15] Webber achieved a season-high third at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit for 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 30 points and second in the Rookie of the Year standings.

[17] He entered the 1995 Australian Formula Ford Championship with Yellow Pages Racing driving a 1995 Van Diemen car, finishing fourth overall with three victories, three pole positions and 158 points in a high-quality field.

[19] He won four races in the British series,[24] finishing second in the championship behind teammate Kristian Kolby,[18] and was also third in the Formula Ford Euro Cup driving two of the three rounds with a win at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

[4] Driving a Dallara F397 car powered by an old Mugen Honda engine purchased by the Webber family,[25][27] he won the Brands Hatch Grand Prix event and came fourth overall with 131 points.

[e][32] After testing at the A1 Ring, Webber rejected an offer from Mercedes-Benz motorsports boss Norbert Haug to drive a CLK GTR car at the FIA GT Nürburgring 4 Hours in place of Alexander Wurz.

He, Ludwig and Schnieder retired their Le Mans-specific CLK-LM car after 75 minutes due to a steering pump fault causing an engine failure.

[41][42] Webber, the title favourite,[43] tended to overestimate the Lola car's grip whilst combining F3000 racing with regular access to F1 vehicles for testing.

[28] Webber made his F1 test debut with the Arrows team in a two-day session organised by Stoddart at the Circuit de Catalunya in December 1999.

[44] Plans to drive the Arrows A21 car at Silverstone in July 2000 was cancelled,[45] when he and Stoddart rejected a binding contract for 2001 from team owner Tom Walkinshaw.

[46] Ron Walker and telecommunications company Telstra successfully lobbied for Webber to replace Fernando Alonso at Minardi for the first three races of the 2002 season.

[53][60] At the 2003 season's third round, the Brazilian Grand Prix, he qualified a season-high third but crashed after losing grip driving through water to cool his tyres late in the rain-affected race.

[h][66][62] During the 2004 season, Webber contributed to the Jaguar R5's technical development and was consistent year-round, extracting extra car performance and regularly outperforming his Red Bull-backed teammate Christian Klien.

Webber was involved in five race collisions and burnt his right hip in France due to heat generated by a failed external electronics box penetrating his car's cockpit.

[89] Thereafter, Webber's performance for the remainder of the season diminished mainly because Red Bull opted to sacrifice speed so it could focus on constructing a new car to comply with the regulation changes being applied for the 2009 championship.

[91] Webber sustained multiple injuries in a head-on collision with a car at a charity endurance cycling event in Port Arthur, Tasmania in November 2008, including a fractured right leg.

[27] At the German Grand Prix, Webber overcame a drive-through penalty he incurred for a first-lap collision with Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car to achieve his first career victory from his maiden pole position.

[104][105][106] His RB6 car was designed to channel engine exhaust gases through a bodywork slot to the diffuser's central area for more downforce and cornering speed.

[117][118] Webber was hindered by intermittent KERS failures that Red Bull rectified and he was frustrated with the quickly degrading Pirelli tyres losing their performance when a driver was in the aerodynamic turbulence of another car.

[117][119] He made slower starts due to the car's ballast distribution compromised by the KERS' additional weight exacerbated by him weighing 11 kg (24 lb) more than Vettel.

[126][127] Webber's decision to re-sign was made more difficult in mid-2011 because of his poor qualifying performance on Pirelli tyres but noted the potential of Newey's car designs.

[28] Webber remained at Red Bull for the 2013 championship: he wanted to honour an earlier promise he had made to Horner and Mateschitz to stay at the team until his F1 career was over.

After restarting training that month, Webber decided to retire from F1 after 2013 because he wanted to spend more time with his family, demotivation with F1 since drivers could not criticise Pirelli's tyres for fear of possibly upsetting others and the politics when large sums of money were involved.

[35][147] before claiming four consecutive victories to enter the season-ending 6 Hours of Bahrain leading Audi's Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer by 12 points.

[155] He kept the news secret until going to Japan, citing Porsche's dwindling desire to commit fully to its LMP1 programme and the difficulty of doing "this job half-hearted" with regards of getting motivated to do test sessions and races as reasons.

Entering a braking zone, Webber achieved more retardation rate in a downforce-reliant car than other drivers and as the downforce decreased he was able to modulate pressure and sensitivity well to remain within the tyre's grip limit.

"[96] Bruce Jones described Webber in the book The Story of Formula One: 65 Years of Life in the Fast Lane as having earned "considerable admiration for his straight-talking, honest approach that was devoid of pretence or hyperbole.