Ever wondered why Mark Webber never signed up with Ferrari? Here’s why he didn’t go red!

Published 03/21/2019, 4:11 AM EDT

Mark Webber, to this day, commands respect and admiration for his uncomplicated and respectable race craft. He was extremely fit, rather is, as one can see in the presentations, briefings and the quintessential F1 paraphernalia. He was an agile athlete. And above all, he knew how to go fast in an F1 car. Yet, a puzzle has wrapped the minds of those who followed his career closely.

Why didn’t Mark Webber ever sign up with Ferrari?

This, truth be told, has become more than a standard question in the realm of motor-racing but, in fact, a very complicated puzzle to which, one doesn’t seem to have sufficient answers.

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Well, all of that is slated to change now. Wondering how?

It’s simple. “Aussie Grit” himself has revealed the answer as to why he didn’t sign up for the Maranello-based outfit, despite having taken his talks at a higher, rather conclusive stage or so.

It turns out that Mark Webber, back in the day, had negotiated a possible decision with none other than Stefano Domenicali, who was the then team principal at Ferrari. So here’s what happened.

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Speaking exclusively with Channel 4, Mark Webber shared that the potential decision never really transpired. He also shared that he had a meeting with Mr. Domenicali at Monte Carlo and that the duo came pretty close to locking the Aussie for driving in reds.

To quote Mark directly, here’s what might surprise most of his fans.

“I was very much actually looking forward to working with Stefano but I think it was actually the duration of the contract which was a bit of an issue for me.

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“And also, at the time, Luca di Montezemolo, wanted me to go and see him in Italy and I had Flavio in my corner, so there was a little bit of arm wrestling going on.

“But, in the end, I would have definitely signed very quickly about a two-year fixed contract with Ferrari but it was optioned one-and-one. In the end, I decided to stay at Red Bull.”

That told, one mustn’t forget that Mark Webber really loved and stayed loyal to the Red Bull side, a set-up that actually became more of a family to him instead of just being a team. Despite enduring some of the strangest of contests, for example, the moodiness of Vettel, who didn’t adhere to team orders at Malaysia, it was Webber’s pure resilience that allowed him to enjoy admirable seasons at Red Bull, particularly from the onset of 2011-13.

In that regard, not going to Ferrari didn’t really make Mark Webber’s world succumb to a standstill- right?

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