The Small Picture
Tale of the race without a doubt goes to Mark Webber, departing Formula 1 to return to sports car racing after 11 years in the sport. Since 2002 we have enjoyed having the hard-racing, straight-talking Australian in our midst, and it is very sad to see him move on. Easily one of the most liked and enjoyed characters in the F1 paddock, he has been exciting to watch and see grow into a race winner, and deserved champion after missing out so narrowly on the title in 2010. Mark Webber is definitely an old school driver and gentleman racer, something so rare and mostly gone from motorsport and it has been a pleasure to watch some of his thrilling battles, quite often with Fernando Alonso at Silverstone or Spa. Who can forget his phenomenal overtake round the outside up through Eau Rouge on Fernando Alonso at Spa in 2011, or hunting him down to take the victory in the closing laps at Silverstone in 2012. But also we loved seeing him do things like pick up Alonso at the Nurburgring in 2011 after he stopped following the race with a lack of fuel, and most recently hitching a ride with Alonso again in Singapore this year after his Red Bull burst into flames on the penultimate lap, for which an amusing hoax invoice for taxi services appeared. It was reminiscent of Senna and Mansell, and the kind of thing we love to see in this sport, rather than the kind of cold, hard hostility he received from his teammate. There is no doubt we will miss Mark Webber, his passion and his heart; We have been through some wonderful highs and some gut wrenching lows with Aussie Grit, but I look forward to seeing him in sports cars with Porsche, where I hope he gets a new lease of life with cars he can push with, back at Le Mans and beyond. He knew it was time to go, and he ended his time in F1 still on top form, with recent pole positions and a final podium, which with great shame could not be a victory. He is keen to move on though, so much so that he is wasting no time, having had a secret seat fitting last week at Porsche and secured early release from Red Bull to join the Le Mans legends Monday morning after the Brazilian Grand Prix. As of this article, he's already gone, resigned to our fond memories. This Small Picture also in part goes to Felipe Massa, leaving Ferrari after eight years as a race driver for the team. It is a big new step forward for Felipe as he moves to Williams for 2014, heading on from the Scuderia that almost brought him the world title in 2008, robbed so cruelly at the last moment. In his final race for the team he drove hard, but was unfairly given a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit entry lines, just a bit of paint on the track, which also robbed us fans of what had been an exciting battle between him and Hamilton, bringing back memories of 2008 for us all. He came home seventh in his final, emotional race for the team, spinning some donuts on the main straight before heading into the pits. He was understandably angry after the race, but can now move on to a new part of his career, which I really hope can bring him success after his lack thereof in recent seasons, and really show again the brilliant driver we know him to be.