STEVE WAUGH, PRESENTER: Hello. I’m Steve Waugh, former Australian cricket captain. This week's story is about a good friend of mine, Formula One driver Mark Webber. Mark is one of the few Australians to break into the elite world of the F1 circuit, but success didn’t come easy. Tonight, for the first time, he shares the remarkable untold story of those who helped get him there and opens a window on the politics and pitfalls of such a high-octane career. Buckle up: it’s a wild ride.

(Footage of Mark donning helmet and getting into Formula One car)

MARK WEBBER: I’ve had sportsmen and women sit in my Formula One car and they go, "How the hell can you drive in this position? It’s horrible." Your eye line is very low, sort of knee-level height. I mean, it’s a very claustrophobic environment, especially for a big guy like me. I am not an F1 driver size. I'm... I picked the wrong sport. You can’t see that well the opposition. You know, obviously, on TV we see everything: "Yeah, oh God," you know, that’s how it is. But obviously in the car: you put the helmet on. You’re like, you’ve got a letterbox.

PAUL STODDART, FMR MINARDI TEAM OWNER: They lose litres of fluid out of their body in that 40-degree-heat race, where you’ve got, you know, 70 laps of pounding round with - almost you can't breathe in the cockpit.

MICK DOOHAN, MOTORCYCLING CHAMPION AND FRIEND: Everything happens within a split second. You’re 300 plus kilometres an hour, so a little mistake is a big mistake.

MARK WEBBER: G-forces: you know, the pressure on the neck, trying to hold your neck in the fast corners for long periods of time. You can, you can hear the plank of the wood touching, you know: "tst-tst-tst", like it’s kissing, kissing the ground at high speed. You can nearly smell that, 'cause your senses are so elevated. Your vision and your smell is on such a high level because of testosterone and your, your awareness. Everything’s off the charts. Everything is bespoke towards a brutal, high-speed weapon.

JACKIE STEWART, FMR F1 WORLD CHAMPION: It’s a very big challenge: to come from Australia, the furthest part away from where Grand Prix racing really is. You had to be somebody special. Jack Brabham was such a man, Alan Jones won the world championship. And then Mark Webber came along and really woke the whole place up again.

PETER WILKINS, REPORTER (ABC News, 2009): After 130 races, there was no holding back the emotion as Mark Webber won the German Grand Prix.

JUANITA PHILIPS, NEWSREADER (ABC News, 2012): The Australian was in front from start to finish in the Spanish Grand Prix.

GREG RUST, F1 COMMENTATOR: Formula One is a billion-dollar business, not just a sport. Rock star drivers, glitz, glamour, speed, danger: you name it, it's got it all. And only 20 or so available seats that every driver in the world wants to get into.

JEREMY HERNANDEZ, NEWSREADER (ABC News, 2012): Australia's Mark Webber has claimed his first Formula One victory of the year by winning the Monaco Grand Prix.

ALAN JONES, FMR F1 WORLD CHAMPION: He won nine Grand Prix. He was a leading Formula One driver. But when you get different nationalities, when you've got more money than you can poke a stick at, egos that you can't jump over, it's always going to be a nice melting pot for aggravation.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, 2013): Webber’s teammate Sebastian Vettel disobeyed team orders and overtook the Australian to win the race.

PAUL STODDART: Formula One is absolutely a fight to the death. It is very political. It doesn’t take any prisoners. I think Mark, probably now that he’s out of the so-say "Piranha Club", probably has time to reflect and perhaps unleash some of his feelings that he couldn’t unleash when he was actually active in the paddock.

(Mark and Ann are discussing his schedule)

MARK WEBBER: What time does the function start?

ANN NEAL, PARTNER: Oh, it's Four, 4:30. And then you've got dinner with Porsche drivers. And then there's this NBC interview...



MARK WEBBER: When you’re outside the sport, you see all the lights and I suppose the glitz and the glamour: what’s in front of what we call the "bullshit boards": you know, behind what goes on behind, then you start to see there’s actually just so much personal interest in certain decisions, you know, and how... and you're just like, "Wow. That’s probably not in the best interest of the sport."

ANN NEAL: You know, there are hidden agendas. People are doing it for the wrong reasons and (sighs) the drivers become a pawn in the game, really. It just sort of dawned on us, like: it’s not so much about sport anymore.

MARK WEBBER: I just happened to be one of the jokers in the game you know. My earliest memory of Formula One was around 10, at home in Queanbeyan, watching it on TV. Dad would come and wake me up for the start. Parents obviously do shape their kids' lives at that early age and yeah, my father did that with me.

ALAN WEBBER, FATHER: I’ve always enjoyed motor racing. Jack Brabham was my hero. It’s like a drug, but an expensive drug but not illegal. I did take him to the Adelaide Grand Prix for his first one.

MARK WEBBER: And I just couldn’t believe there was a human in that car. And I was just like: that thing is an absolute missile and these guys are superhuman.

(Home video footage of Mark as a teenager, competing in Go Kart race)

ALAN WEBBER: He didn’t start the Go Karts until he was 13. He was able to run at the front pretty early and pretty quickly. So I thought, "Well, I’ll just see how we go with the, the motor racing dream." With him still being at school, we weren’t able to practice very much. Also, didn’t have a lot of money.

MARK WEBBER: The support that I had from my parents was incredible. You know, this was a big family decision. Obviously it’s not taken lightly.

DIANE WEBBER, MOTHER: From a mother’s point of view, you worry about them. But it was certainly nerve-wracking, but there was worse to come. (Laughs)

CRAIG LOWNDES, V8 SUPERCAR DRIVER: We were all budding young drivers wanting to establish ourselves in motor racing. Really, you need those contacts to be able to really open doors and talk to people that you need to. And Ann was that person for Mark.

ANN NEAL: I was working in the motor racing world for... ever since I left school, really: first as a journalist. I emigrated out to Australia in the early 90s. I started to work for the Formula Ford association, looking after their press work. And that’s how I actually met Mark. I remember him having very sunburnt, brown forearms of, like, what on earth made me notice that? Um, and I just thought he was cheeky as well.

MARK WEBBER: Dad approached her to try and put some sponsorship proposals together because we, you know, we were in our first season of racing.

ANN NEAL: They liked what they saw and they sponsored him. But they said the condition was that I was to manage him. So I was: "OK." (Laughs)

(Footage of Ann unrolling document)

ANN NEAL: This was a document that I actually scribbled together to try and come up with a plan of how we got from Mark from Queanbeyan to Formula One. My advice to Mark was to: "Get you over to Europe and, yeah, throw you in with the wolves, basically. See how you go."

SPORTS REPORTER (Sky Sports UK, 1996): What’s the competition like over here, compared to Australia?

MARK WEBBER (1996): Yeah, it's a lot stronger over here for sure.

MARK WEBBER: Annie didn’t have much doubt, no. I mean, she was, you know, very much a very... you know, a strong driving force. I think yeah, she believed I could do it. So did I.

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sky Sports UK, 1996): He punches the air with delight. It’s the 21-year-old Australian who takes the chequered flag.

MARK WEBBER: Annie and I: I think when we left here, there was a lot of people who: "Yeah, they’ll be back in six months. Give 'em one year." She was, you know, very much a, a dog with a bone and: "Come on. Let’s ring these teams and let’s do this and let’s do that." So she was super-tenacious.

DIANE WEBBER: When he did go overseas I, I struggled a lot. Because, you know, I thought, "God, 19, he’s going over there, you know, into what? What’s he gonna do?"

ANN NEAL: Mark’s and my relationship was definitely a partnership. Teammates call it what you want. From very, very early on, you know, we just had this kind of bond.

MARK WEBBER: The relationship with Anne, you know, certainly got more serious and we were, um, yeah, in a relationship as such. So, ah, yeah that was, ah... Yeah. It was good.

JACKIE STEWART: I don’t know a great deal of history about Ann and Mark in that world. I- all I know is that obviously she took advantage of him. Er, and I tell her that every time I see her, you know? Er, but she’s been a terrific part of his career.

MARK WEBBER: Mum might have had a problem with the age difference, yeah. I mean, I’m trying to close in on Annie but she’s still the same age gap. But, ah, yeah. I think that, you know, at the time, probably, yeah: Mum wasn’t maybe a massive fan of that.

DIANE WEBBER: In the beginning, yeah. It was, it was pretty rocky, very rocky. But we get on well together now.

ANN NEAL: I think it was a shock to her to think that her son was in a relationship with an older woman who had her own son and, you know, where was Mark going with this?

LUKE BARRETT, ANN NEAL'S SON: I never really saw Mark as a father figure, I saw him as an older brother. We played on Xbox quite a bit. Ma and Mark's partnership has just told me: just never give in to anything. People say "no" a lot of the times but they’ve always... They've never taken "no" for an answer.

ANN NEAL: Mark and I kept our relationship under wraps, purely because I just didn’t think it was the right message if I was going to talk to a team boss or a sponsor. If I rocked in there saying, “Oh, my partner, my boyfriend”: I mean, it just sounded naff. I knew the sport well enough to, to stand my own ground and, and represent him well. It was an incredibly tough struggle in those early years.

MARK WEBBER: I was working as a racing instructor, so that was 43 pounds a day. It was very important that, you know, we both contributed to just getting the groceries in.

ANNOUNCER (Mercedes Racing video, YouTube): 1998 was a most distinguished year for AMG Mercedes...

GREG RUST: Probably the first real big breakthrough for Mark was in his early 20s when he was signed by Mercedes in sports cars.

MARK WEBBER: Now I’m a professional, so now I’m actually getting paid. So my first contract was around 70,000 German marks which: that’s good. That is sensational.

SPORTS REPORTER (1998): Mark Webber’s Mercedes is the number one qualifier for this race. Mark Webber, how you feeling at the moment?

MARK WEBBER (1998): I’m feeling really good.

ANN NEAL: In most people’s eyes he had arrived: you know, he’s suddenly made it, he was gonna be this famous person, whatever.

SPORTS REPORTER (1998): Well, you know the whole of Australia are behind, so go get 'em.

MARK WEBBER (1998): Thank you very much.

ANN NEAL: There was a girl on the scene: ah, someone that Mark used to go to school with. Um, and he did, he did take up with her for a little while.

MARK WEBBER: There was a lot of things going on. I was, you know, pressing on with the career. Well, we had, you know, a, a, a tricky moment. Um you know, it happened.

ANN NEAL: To be honest, I was more angry about the whole thing going off the rails in terms of his career, 'cause I just knew this was so the wrong thing. You know, he could not afford to have a girlfriend who’s living back in Australia, when he’s trying to, you know, pursue a professional career in Europe. They decided they didn’t want me doing his management anymore. That was a bit of a kick. I thought, "Right, OK. So that’s how it works, is it? You know, I’ve done all this hard work, got you to, you know, into a professional racing scene and now you don’t need me? OK, we’ll see. Let’s just see." (Laughs) And, of course, long and short of it is: he realised that he actually did need me in his life. Um, and that’s when I get the call, you know, "I want to come home."

MARK WEBBER: Certainly a bit of an upper cut to myself but that’s, you know, that's fine. I don’t have too many regrets with that. We patched it back up and, yeah, and got on with it pretty quickly.

(Footage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, France, 1999)

SPORTS ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Le Mans for the 67th running of the 24 hours of Le Mans.

MARK WEBBER: I never got in the car and, you know, thought that I was going to hurt myself. I... You know, it’s not that you’re immortal, but you feel pretty much fearless.

ANN NEAL: I know what the dangers are and you just don't - It’s an area you don’t actually talk about. In '99 the focus was now to be just purely on Le Mans, which is obviously this Mecca of car races. And unfortunately it just went spectacularly wrong.

MICK DOOHAN: In that long straight, the car got a little bit of air, got a little light, got a little air underneath it. And next minute it took off.

MARK WEBBER: It flipped. You literally are now, um, in a low sort of altitude plane, if you like. But my life did flash before me. You just - I thought about three women: it was my sister, my mother and Annie. You hope they’re not watching and you don’t want them to go through any sort of, um, you know, heartache, I suppose.

ALAN WEBBER: It was about an hour-and-a-half before I got to the hospital

(Excerpt from Le Mans coverage, 1999)

SPORTS REPORTER: They haven’t told you what the reason was?

ALAN WEBBER: No. I have no idea at this stage.

(Footage ends)

ALAN WEBBER: And I didn’t really know what I was going to find. Difficult. I walked in and he was alright. He said, "Dad," he said, "I flipped three times." I went back and I told the, er, the people on the, the pit wall at, er, Mercedes: "This is bullshit. This cannot happen." And, er, so that was that response and I guess, to be honest, I wasn’t very impressed.

MARK WEBBER: There was no still shots. There was no vision. And I think it was hard for people to accept what took place. I said, "Well, I know exactly what’s happened, guys. You know, the thing - I’m telling you now, it flipped." I had the day off and then went back out. And then I had a similar type of accident the next lap out. I just said to myself, "I don’t want any pain. I just want it over fast." So I’m not going to be lucky twice

(Footage of crash, Le Mans, 1999)

SPORTS COMMENTATOR: It’s the Mark Webber car!

SPORTS COMMENTATOR 2: Yes, again.

(Footage ends)

MARK WEBBER: But I walked away.

GREG RUST: Into the race itself, an almost identical accident happens to his teammate. Miraculously he survives. Mercedes pull down the garage door and suddenly Mark’s career is at a crossroads once again.

MARK WEBBER: Mentally I was pretty scarred from those shunts because the trust: I trusted that car like my... like my mother. And it really did knock me around. You know, I was in a pretty bad place. Didn’t step in a car for six months

SPORTS COMMENTATOR (archive): OK, Alan. You can take your hands off your eyes now and watch your son win...

GREG RUST: It was another three years of trying to get the money together and racing in other categories that would ultimately lead to an opportunity with the Minardi Formula One team, who were the bottom of the rung, if you like, in Formula One - but it was a start.

MARK WEBBER (ABC TV News, 2002): It’s not an easy thing to arrive in Formula One. So I’m at base camp at Everest. Now I’ve got to get to the top of Everest. So I’ll do the best I can.

PAUL STODDART, FMR OWNER, MINARDI F1: We knew the cars were marginal. We knew it was going to be a tough weekend. And then, of course the famous start: all the cars falling over each other. And so you get excited 'cause I saw both of ours get through. And you’re thinking, "It’s just not possible. Could he possible score a point?" And when he crossed the line: I mean, that was just, probably one of the greatest days of my life.

SPORTS REPORTER (archive): Australia’s Mark Webber was fifth on debut.

MARK WEBBER: In the end: yeah, got fifth place. It was incredible and Stoddie said, "Forget the three-race contract. You can stay for the whole season," which was, yeah, just fantastic.

GREG RUST: Without doubt it was one of the best, most memorable debuts ever. It was a "David and Goliath" performance, set him up for a career in Formula One.

ANN NEAL: He was the toast of the town. And I remember then that we were kind of like: we weren’t really together in most people’s eyes and it was a bit of a strange sensation: sort of like, wow he just achieved this but I couldn’t really (laughs) be too emotional about it. Then I suppose gradually we came out. No-one wrote headlines about it but we were just more comfortable about being open about it and that’s how it really sort of evolved.

GREG RUST: So after Minardi there were opportunities at Jaguar and Williams. Both had fast cars at times, but not cars consistently capable of giving him wins. It's a physically demanding game. You need to be almost superhuman in fitness terms. And that is in some ways what set him apart from the rest.

MARK WEBBER: My size and my weight was not, er, certainly ideal for F1. I had to work hard on that, on the fitness side and being very lean and make sure that my weight was, was very low. There is a huge amount of selfishness that is needed. And it does take its toll, probably, on the people that are closest to you.

ANN NEAL: He couldn’t have a drink. He couldn’t have a decent meal. (Laughs) He couldn’t be out late because there was always this routine.

MARK WEBBER: I’m sorta kicking her under the table and I’m like, you know, “Come on, right. You know, I wanna go home," you know. Just, "I wanna train tomorrow."

NEWS REPORTER (archive): Webber staged his annual Tasmanian multi-sport event to keep fit during Formula One’s off season, raising money for charity at the same time.

STEVE WAUGH, FMR CRICKETER AND FRIEND: Mark invited me to the wilderness challenge on the west coast of Tasmania, which I thought: "Pretty cruisy sort of day. It'd be nice to get out and check a bit of Tasmania out." Twenty four hours later I was regretting that decision and my body was just in, in meltdown.

MARK WEBBER (archive): Yeah. Good slog. But you know, it’s a hard ride. I think a lot of people are gonna be on the ropes, to be honest.

ANN NEAL: It was the 2008 Mark Webber Challenge and they met a car coming the opposite direction. And he broke his leg in the process.

REPORTER (news, archive): Webber was rushed to hospital for surgery on his right leg.

ANN NEAL: The timing wasn’t exactly spot on because there was a new teammate to contend with and his name was Sebastian Vettel.

GREG RUST: Mark had been with Red Bull for two years when this young German, Sebastian Vettel, arrived. He'd come up through their junior development program and was kind of part of the family when he, when he turned up.

ANN NEAL: He was a good kid and yeah, Mark liked him and yeah, it was going to be a great partnership.

CHRISTIAN HORNER, RED BULL F1 TEAM (Red Bull promotional video): It was clear he was a talent. I didn’t know actually how good he was going to be at that stage.

SEBASTIAN VETTEL, RED BULL F1 DRIVER (Red Bull promotional video): A lot of time has gone by and a lot of things have happened since.

CRAIG LOWNDES: The golden rule in any, any motor racing team is to beat your teammate. Mark and Vettel: they used to push each other.

GREG RUST: Mark and Sebastian had this rivalry and in some ways it was a good thing to begin with. It spurred the team on to some terrific results

PETER WILKINS (ABC News, 2009): After 130 races, there was no holding back the emotion as Mark Webber won the German Grand Prix.

MARK WEBBER: My first Grand Prix victory was the proudest moment, probably, in my career.

PETER WILKINS (ABC News, 2009): At 32, Webber became the first Australian to win a Formula One race since Alan Jones in 1981.

MARK WEBBER: For my father to be there for my first win was super-emotional. It was funny, because I think he had a steak the night before and he lost his front tooth. He said, "Mate, you won’t believe it. I lost my front tooth. I said, "Oh, whatever, bullshit," 'cause he’s always, you know, he’s a practical joker. So he said, "No, dead set. I’ve got no front tooth." So of all the days when he wanted to smile like a Cheshire cat, obviously he couldn’t.

PETER WILKINS (ABC News, 2009): Mark Webber couldn’t have been happier winning his second Grand Prix.

ANN NEAL: 2010: it just went on a nice roll for, for three or four races. It was, it was just brilliant: couldn’t do anything wrong.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, 2010): The first Australian to win the Monaco Grand Prix since Jack Brabham in 1959.

ANN NEAL: We got the impression that Sebastian wasn’t happy with how things were going. This old Aussie was beating him and it wasn’t really the way it was supposed to be.

JACKIE STEWART: There was a difficult period that started off, I think, in the Grand Prix of Turkey when Sebastian and Mark collided.

SPORTS REPORTER (ABC TV News, 2010): With a teammate like this, who needs enemies?

SEBASTIAN VETTEL (Red Bull promotional video): I was getting ready to try to overtake him and then we touched.

GREG RUST: Both say that they'll point the finger at the other until they go to their, their graves. But most thought it was Sebastian that made the risky move and then, amazingly, one of the senior team figures came out and backed Vettel.

ANN NEAL: The issues started to come because of poor team management, really: you know, letting him get away with things. I'd just think, "Really? You’re gonna let him get away with that?"

ALAN JONES: Well, there was always that perception that Vettel had, um, better treatment, for want of a better word. The team is based in England but it's Austrian and German money that sponsor it.

MARK WEBBER: Yeah, I’d just won the previous two Grand Prix from start to finish and then new rear, rear wing arrives and goes over to the other side of the garage. And I know for a fact the mechanics were furious.

CHRISTIAN HORNER: You were never going to keep both drivers, you know, totally 100 per cent happy. And sometimes, you know, as a team principal you have to make difficult decisions.

MARK WEBBER: You just think, "Yeah, was there a bit of an agenda going on?" They were very keen to keep him a probably little bit happier because, you know, again: I was an old dog, I was the guy who was supposed to be a little bit washed up.

NEWSREADER (ABC TV News, 2010): Mark Webber isn’t happy. The Australian crashed out on a saturated track and that may have ended his bid for this year’s Formula One world championship.

PAUL STODDART: Seb after 2010 had an edge on Mark that never went away, um, sadly for Mark.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, Nov. 2010): Formula One has a new world champion, but not the one that Australians wanted. Twenty-three-year-old German Sebastian Vettel won the Abu Dhabi...

MARK WEBBER: Yeah, I would have loved to have, of course, got the Championship and had the number one on the car. But yeah, it wasn’t to be.

ANN NEAL: I think Mark was good for one world championship. I think he had that drive and desire and the talent. But that ruthlessness and you know, "I don’t give a shit about anyone": that’s definitely not him.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, Mar. 2013): Formula One driver Mark Webber is heading home to consider his future after a spiteful Malaysian Grand Prix.

GREG RUST: 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix was definitely the low point. The team had a coded message, "Multi 21", which basically said that after the final round of pit stops, whichever of the team drivers was in front, they would maintain station. And that's how it would be until the end of the race. And Seb kind of went rogue. He went and did his own thing, overtook Mark, broke the rule and went on to win the Grand Prix. And Webber was fuming about it.

REPORTER (Mar. 2013): The German took the victory and the championship lead.

MARK WEBBER: Furious with Seb? A little bit. But just the whole scenario was: just how did we get ourselves in that, this position?

PAUL STODDART: That was the lowest of the low. I mean, I think I’ve seen probably everything over the years. But that one: I would’ve had a lot of difficulty not getting out of that car and thumping Sebastian.

MARK WEBBER: So we got off the podium and yeah. He just come over. Just, "We need to talk," you know. He said, "I’ve just f****d up. I f****d up, mate. I f****d up so bad," you know. I said, "Mate, well," I said, "Well, let’s just talk, let’s talk next week." I don’t know who spoke to him between Malaysia and China but we had a discussion in China and the discussion didn’t go well. And yeah, he just said that yeah: he had massive respect for me as a driver and, and not much as a person. So that really affected the relationship, obviously. At the time, we would hardly stand the sight of each other. The team after "Multi 21" were... yeah, disappointed, no question about it. They were shown how toothless they were. They couldn’t handle us two out there, obviously, on the track, which shouldn’t be like that. They just needed something to change so, you know, I helped that decision for them and left.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, Nov. 2013): Australian driver Mark Webber has bid an emotional farewell to Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix,

MARK WEBBER: The day of the race it started to hit me. It was like: this is it. I must say I actually welled up a little bit. I was like, the eyes were sort of like, were full before the race started. I'm just like: OK, yeah, this was, this is emotional. It’s about to finish.

JUANITA PHILIPS (ABC News, Nov. 2013): Webber finished second behind his teammate and bitter rival, Sebastian Vettel.

MARK WEBBER: I thought I’d take my helmet off, because we have our helmets on all the time. But it was just a thank you, really, to say goodbye that way.

ANN NEAL: I think Mark came out of his F1 career with his head held high. You know, that was more important, probably, than winning the title. I think his code of ethics, you know, the sportsmanship: well, that was actually far more important.

MARK WEBBER: It was all clean. It was all as... I wanted it to be. And that’s why I can look back and say, "Yeah, I'm, you know, I’m proud of what I achieved." Seb’s trophy cabinet come out of it better than mine. But I’m not jealous of him at all of what he achieved and what he’s got. Time is a healer. A few glasses of red wine here and there and, you know, the grudges will be going. Seb and I are getting on pretty well, actually. We had a good chat in Monaco. We’ve caught up a few times. It’s interesting to see, you know, from his perspective how he saw things and how I saw things. And yeah, obviously we have a lot of respect for each other. You know, he said, "Yeah, I mean, we all look back and say would we have done things differently: absolutely yes."

(Footage of Mark being made up for TV coverage of race, Adelaide)

MARK WEBBER: Coffee's going to be my friend today.

MAKE UP ARTIST: I reckon. (Laughs)

MARK WEBBER (to camera): Matty, it doesn’t matter what driver, what track you are at, what category you're in: if you're... hang on.

(End of footage)

GREG RUST: Mark's dabbling in a bit of media. But the racing bug was still there and it's kind of come full circle. He's gone back to sports cars and this time with Porsche.

MARK WEBBER: Didn’t put a scratch on the car all year until the last race of the year, when I got tangled up with a back marker in Brazil.

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): Oh, my goodness me.

ANN NEAL: The crash in Brazil: I was watching it on TV and saw it all unfold.

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): It is a Porsche

ANN NEAL: I was thinking, "Well, whoever’s in that: they're, they're toast, absolutely." No way.

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): It is the 20 car. That is Mark Webber’s car.

ANN NEAL: So I thought, "OK, that’s it. That is really it this time. His luck has run out."

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): They’re listening to see if Mark’s talking to them. And that’s why the concerned faces.

ANN NEAL: Luke: I called out to him. I said, "There’s been a horrible, terrible, terrible accident. It's Mark. I can’t watch it."

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): It may have been that Mark was already on the inside and just collected the...

LUKE BARRETT: My Mum pretty hysterical at the time. She was saying some pretty strong things: saying, "I don’t know what I'm going to do without him." And I was trying to, you know, console her and say, "Everything's going to be OK. Everything's going to be OK." You can’t see him moving so yeah, that was, that was tough.

RACING COMMENTATOR (Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 2014): That’s - Mark is, ah, waving his hands.

LUKE BARRETT: But until, you know, we saw him on the stretcher with his thumbs up, it was a... yeah, it was a horrendous. Probably, you know, the slowest 20 minutes of my life, sort of, watching it on TV.

MARK WEBBER: I’d had injuries in the past but never really anything to do with a big head knock. I was worried that, you know, it might have been, might have been it. But I tested very, very well in Bahrain pretty quickly and, ah, yeah. We’re back.

ALAN WEBBER: It’s, been a wonderful, wonderful ride that, I’ve had. I’ve loved it all my life. And, you know, to be around, these fellows: it’s been a dream come true.

MARK WEBBER: With Ann, um, we had an incredible journey to get to where we got to. You know, we’ve been through a load together, professionally and privately, and I think that, um... Yeah, it was, I would say, a pretty handy team effort.

(Footage of Mark, Ann and Mark's parents having a drink at a hotel bar)

ALAN WEBBER: He moved around and I've gone flick and break his, break his, split his lip straight away. But he's still talking to me, so that's the main thing.

ANN NEAL: I suppose we’re soul mates. At the end of the day, I think that's probably what you'd say: we’re soul mates. That’s our story. That's what we set out to do and we did it.

END CAPTIONS:

Red Bull declined to comment on matters raised in tonight's program.

Sebastian Vettel agreed to speak to Australian Story but we were unable to coordinate with his schedule.

Mark Webber's autobiography will be released next month. He says he's given his former teammate "a heads-up there might be some carnage".