• 

  On a rebound... Mark Webber's gamble on Red Bull has paid off .

Mark Webber is, without any millimetre of doubt, THE most committed sportsperson I have met.

His fitness is right up with marathon runners and Tour de France cyclists, he is sharper in business than most successful entrepreneurs, and he works a room like an American presidential contender. He is the full package in professional sport and easily justifies a paypacket in the $10 million range. But it wasn't always like that.

I can still clearly remember the night he and his long-term partner Ann Neal put their F1 dream on the fast track. It was the first Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne in 1996 and Webber was outside the function centre at Melbourne Park with a list of the main movers in Formula One. Through the night he hit every one and the contacts he made, with a polite introduction and follow-ups on his career and results, won him a break with Mercedes-Benz.

He would drop in for a chat whenever he was back in Melbourne from his race base in the UK, usually working sponsors like Yellow Pages, and often took advantage of my gym membership to hone the fitness that was always a major priority. Watching Webber at full tilt on a treadmill, at maximum effort for an hour, has stayed with me.

So has the weekend we nearly lost him.

It was Le Mans and he was driving for Benz when his prototype sports car backflipped at more than 220km/h. Twice! Webber was clearly shocked by the first crash, but jumped back in the car the next morning because that's what blokes like him do. When it happened again through no fault of his driving . . . well, he didn't drive for Mercedes again.

Everyone cheered when he graduated to F1 and his first AGP with Minardi was like Mardi Gras, but then there were the down times with Jaguar and Williams, We had many talks when he had to work hard to put a positive spin on things.

Many people questioned his ability or just lost faith. They said he was too old, too slow, too nice, too tall, too matey, or just too ordinary. But Webber was always fast. And one of the very best test drivers in Formula One. The too-tall Aussie was never seen as a superstar, never got a call from McLaren or Ferrari, but smacked down a long list of talented team mates including former regular race winner David Coulthard.

When Webber went to Red Bull - born from the ashes of his former Jaguar team with a massive splash of energy drinks cash - it looked as if he had admitted defeat. Taking a shot with Williams for sentimental reasons when he could have been with Fernando Alonso at Renault had clearly hurt. But not as much as the hurt that came when he crashed and broke a shoulder and leg in Tasmania in December, in a mountain bike prang that could have ended his F1 career.

He rebounded as only he can and this year his gamble on Red Bull has paid off and we have seen the real Mark Webber and the best Mark Webber. He is fast, committed, concentrated, and happy.

Lots of F1 people expected Webber to be smashed by his team mate Sebastian Vettel, but the bloke from Queanbeyan has lifted - again - to a new level of speed and commitment against the German baby hailed as the new Michael Schumacher. Of course, it helps to have a car that does the job.

Now he is a winner and stands alongside Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, who also went on from their first victories to a world championship. Based on Sunday afternoon in Germany there is no reason why Webber cannot also become a world title holder. He qualified like a champion, raced like a champion and crushed his rivals like a champion. "Howzat?", Webber said after cracking pole position for the German GP. Beauty, mate, is the answer for that long overdue win.