Mark Webber has revealed how he once stalked F1 team boss Eddie Jordan, a move which rewarded him with revitalising his career.

Mark Webber’s motorsport career was in danger of stuttering out until the Australian decided to follow Eddie Jordan around until he got a conversation with the Irish team boss.

Mark Webber: I followed Eddie Jordan to a petrol station

Before arriving in Formula 1, Webber had been a sportscar driver and, in the late 90s, was part of Mercedes’ stable for Le Mans and the FIA GT championship.

But the relationship with Mercedes cooled significantly after Webber’s frightening crash at Le Mans in 1999 in which his CLR became airborne along the Mulsanne Straight, as he felt the German manufacturer had not been overly concerned about his wellbeing.

Rejecting a proposal by then-Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug to race in American open-wheel racing, Webber’s contract was terminated in November 1999, and he, together with manager Ann Neal, was desperate to find new opportunities.

Eddie Jordan, the then-team boss of his own eponymous F1 team, was well-known for being an advocate for junior talent, and, as a result, Webber felt it imperative to have a conversation with the Irishman.

The only issue was that, even for a promising racing driver, getting a hold of Jordan was difficult – so Webber decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I was out of a drive in ’99, and I had nothing. I had nothing,” Webber revealed on the final episode of the Formula For Success podcast, appearing alongside host David Coulthard in a tribute to Jordan, who passed away at the age of 76 on March 20th.

“The sports car situation with Mercedes was I was paid 50,000 German Deutschmarks (about 21,000 GBP) a year or whatever when I was driving for them. And we had a lot of issues in Le Mans that year.

“Unemployed, unwanted.

“I was just ringing Gisele, Eddie’s P.A. at the time. Giselle was an awesome Rottweiler P.A., not putting me through, and I just couldn’t get through.

“I said, ‘Stuff this. I’m going to follow EJ from the factory. I’m going to follow him in his car.’ And I followed him to a petrol station.

“I just said, ‘Eddie, I’d just love a chance, even just a straight line test, I just want a chance to do something with you guys, if I can’.

“I think that he saw that hunger and desire – not the most skillful in the world, but he saw I was prepared to have a crack.

“I didn’t have a pot to piss in, but he introduced me to Paul Stoddart.

“He did that, ‘Oh, I think you need to meet Paul. ‘ He took me over to Silverstone a week later, hooked up with Stoddie, and then the rest is history, you know?

“So he gave me a path out. Eddie gave me a path out of that.

“It was a hopeless situation, hopeless. And he gave me a little light at the end of the tunnel.

“I told him several times – Ann and I were forever grateful for that because he gave us a chance.”

The introduction to Stoddart led the airline business magnate to underwrite Webber’s F3000 campaign in 2000 alongside F1 testing with Arrows, which was organised by Stoddart, before lobbying from Australia’s Telstar saw Stoddart take a gamble on slotting Webber into his Minardi team for the first three races of 2002.

With Webber scoring an unlikely fifth place in Melbourne, holding off Toyota’s Mika Salo in the process, Webber sealed his future and went on to race for Jaguar, Williams, and Red Bull before leaving Formula 1 at the end of 2013.

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Mark Webber: They don’t make them like Eddie Jordan anymore

With Coulthard confirming the Formula For Success podcast will end following Jordan’s passing, calling time on a show that Jordan and he had created to weigh in all the events of Formula 1 and had developed a huge following, the Scottish pundit and former Grand Prix driver spoke with Webber about their time working as broadcasters together.

With Webber also becoming a commentator and pundit for Channel 4, all three had the chance to work together on television and the Australian revealed how Jordan would gleefully stymie his own preparations for on-air segments.

“He was a nightmare because he’d cause havoc in trying to plan to have a good TV show,” he said.

“He would cause havoc, of course, in that, because he knew more than the production manager or the people that actually were trying to produce him to look half decent and all of us.

“Then, when it would come to live with cameras rolling, it’s like, he’s have these left field approaches, he’d bring in these couple of bombs with, with some speculative, you know, a real smoker from outside!

“Sometimes, he’d pull you aside and say, ‘What are you going to go with on this one, mate?’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll probably roll with this and have a point on that. ‘

“‘Yeah, that’s goo,d mate. Yeah, right,’ he’d say, and then they’d go to him first, and he’d steal all my ideas!

“He’d use all my stuff, and I’d be like, ‘S**t, EJ, I was going to go with that. Now I’ve got nothing!’”

With Coulthard and Webber bidding farewell to the man who had made such a big impact on their lives, Webber said, “He was brilliant. His brain worked in such fast fashion. Can you ever imagine Eddie on a beach with a book? Just never.

“That guy didn’t need caffeine. He wasn’t a massive drinker. He could just have a phenomenal night, phenomenal day, and bring energy without having any stimulation.

“But he was chaos, mate. He was chaos. The stamina level of the guy, the hours that he would put in… but, when we spent time with him, his sheer stamina, from charging up and down that paddock, getting himself around on his little bike…he was top drawer, mate. Absolute top drawer.

“They don’t make them like that anymore. Well, actually, I don’t think they will make another Eddie Jordan.”

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