Mark Webber nearly didn’t make it to the start of the 2009 F1 season. He had a very serious fall from his mountain bike prior to last years season which left him with multiple fractures in his leg and for a short time his f1 future was in doubt.

As a result of his injuries, he missed the pre-season testing and instead was in intense rehabilitation and physiotherapy. He had almost no miles in the 2009 RedBull by the time the first race of the season came around and was still on a cocktail of heavy painkillers in order to even drive the car.

Mark still didn’t have full use of his leg and working the pedals as a result was very difficult for him, he was not even able to put the pressure required on the pedals nor was he able to move his feet as quickly as he needed. His personal trainer would be on the team radio helping him power through every painful lap.

Mark continued taking painkillers well into the season and it was not until the European rounds mid season when he had made enough of a recovery to no longer require the medication.

Despite all this he was well and truly in the hunt as one of around 4 to 5 contenders for the 2009 championship, he was a regular visitor to the podium and scored two grand prix wins.

The 2009 RB5 didn’t really “come good” until about the 6th round of the season and the team spent the second half of the season chasing down the extraordinary lead BrawnGP had. Red Bull however appeared to be a far more successful and consistent team in the 2nd half of the season and they are most likely the strongest team going in to the 2010 season provided they have a reliable engine.

Mark Webber has had time off now to reflect on 2009 and what he and the team may have done wrong. He has been able to spend far more time with the engineers during the pre-season period and of course being healthy and physically ready (unlike 2009) will be a big advantage.

RedBull have opted not to take part in the first round of official tests at Jerez from 1-3rd Feb this year, instead opting to spend more time developing the car in the wind tunnel, fluid dynamics and other highly sophisticated tests that Adrian Newey seems to do better then anyone.

Adrian Newey is not even remotely concerned about missing the tests that most competitors will be present at. Adrian understands the importance of rigorous aero and fluid dynamic simulation, wind tunnel development and lab tests. I guess you have to hope your systems are absolutely calibrated right to be that confident, but it’s worked for him in the past on no doubt it will work again for him this year. Lets not forget that RedBull missed the first pre season tests in 2009 as well.

RedBull are coming off the back of a very successful 2009 season and they seem to be very strong still, but if the 2010 car will be as strong or maybe stronger then the 2009 car we are yet to find out. Many other teams, in particular Ferrari and McLaren started developments on their 2010 car after only 5 rounds in to the 2009 season. Obviously Ferrari and McLarens 2009 package lacked the pace they have become used to in previous years and as a result poured most of their development into the 2010 car rather then trying to improve the 2009. I expect those teams could be strong again this year.

Many believe that last year was Webber’s one and only hope at claiming a drivers championship, mathematically he was in contention in the later rounds, but ultimately he was too far behind Button and his own team mate, Vettell in the points to ever truly be considered as a contender.

If Webber could improve on last years performance and snag a bag of strong results early on in the 2010 season he may finish higher in the standings then last year, however the likelihood of him beating his RedBull team-mate who has already been tipped to be the 2010 champion by Bernie Eccelstone seems unlikely. This also raises the question as to who will be the favoured driver by RedBull or if they we give both drivers equal resources and let them fight it out in the points race.

The new Qualifying format this year will favour Webber, who is typically strong in qualifying anyway. There is every chance Webber could consistently out-qualify his team-mate, however he needs to back it up with race pace which he may not have over Vettell.

In 2009 both RedBull drivers were equal, but being the championship runner-up puts Vettell in a very strong position at the team, however Webbers long-standing relationship with the team and his experience is also a very strong point and it seems unlikely that the team will go into this season favouring one driver over the other.

Without seeing the 2010 car in action, it’s hard to predict form, in fact even with a month of tests we don’t really see a teams true colours until the first race of the season, I predict that RedBull will be the strongest team on the 2010 grid provided that the Renault engine does not let them down. RedBull could have claimed the 2009 championship if they had an engine as reliable as the Mercedes power plant in the Brawns. They have stuck with Renault as their engine supplier for 2010, so hopefully they can overcome some of the reliability issues that let them down last year.

If Webber really does want the crown, he’s arguably with the best team on the grid with every opportunity he needs. It is now or never for Mark, but ultimately I feel it will be his team mate Sebastian Vettell who could snag the drivers championship this year.

Webber is yet to confirm whether or not he will even be in Formula1 beyond 2010. Rumours are swirling that Kimi could return to F1 to take Mark’s seat in 2011, yet at the same town, Christian Horner denies these rumours and instead there are already reports that Mark has signed on for another year. I predict that if he has an even better year this year, then he’ll stick around and drive for the team again in 2011.

Mark still feels he could be world champion one day and he knows he’s finally at a team that could help him achieve that.

I’d like to finish this story with a video of Mark celebrating his first ever Grand Prix victory when he won at the Nurburgring against all odds, including a drive-through penalty. What you are hearing over the team radio is not a man possessed, but instead around 5 years of pent-up frustration and ‘bad luck’ all flowing out…