A promising start to the year saw Mark notch up 18 points by mid-season, but the team then lost ground. There were two reasons for this: the design team switched its focus onto 2009 and Renault lost ground to the other manufacturers, despite a new-for-’08 ‘engine freeze’ purporting to halt engine development.
“I wasn’t big on the introduction of the engine freeze. I know that we had to look at the costs, but F1 was very much a prototype formula in my head and the prospect of using the same spec engine all year didn’t fill me with excitement. Especially when we were losing ground to the opposition!
But our problems weren’t all engine-related; the car was very unreliable and we took the decision for Adrian to focus his attention on the ’09 rule changes early on.”
“David Coulthard retired from F1 at the end of the year. He was a good team-mate and I was pleased that he got the timing of his retirement right – just. He was the ultimate professional and he won a lot of races, so he can be more than satisfied with his career. I was just sorry for him that he didn’t finish his last race in Brazil.
I didn’t get much of an off-season because I headed to Tasmania for another Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge soon after the last race, where I then had my cycling crash. Getting back to race fitness by the following March was the toughest hurdle I’ve ever faced and it was incredibly satisfying to achieve it.”
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- link should be henryfraser.org/mystory.html :-)” 4 days ago
- Very inspiring read from @henryfraser0 I visited Henry in hospital in the early days of his rehab. henryfraser.org/my story.html #champ 4 days ago
- http://t.co/zvSlEkoNQR 7 days ago