Webber's rollercoaster week

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster ride for WilliamsF1 star Mark Webber. A water leak led to his retirement from a potential podium position at Hockenheim, and he was told the next day that Williams wouldn't be taking up their option on his services for 2007.

"We had a hard few days in and around Germany, " says Webber. "The retirement was disappointing, but I took some encouragement from our pace because the FW28 handled well in race trim, and the Bridgestone tyres were very consistent.

"As for leaving Williams, it's disappointing that it hasn’t worked out between us because when I joined the team, I was set on the idea of spending the rest of my career there. I'm not a quitter, but a driver's F1 career is short and you have to maximise your chances every year."

Webber had hoped that the team would be as competitive in Hungary as they were at Monaco earlier in the year. But that wasn’t the case. The car had good pace over one lap (he started from fifth place on the grid), but it struggled in the wet-dry conditions on race day.

Webber retired on lap two after spinning off and his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, followed him out of the race on lap 20 with an electrical fault.

"This has been a disappointing weekend," said the team’s technical director Sam Michael. "We now have the three-week break ahead of us and we must work hard to make progress.”

Webber, meanwhile, heads to Iceland on a PR trip for the team.