Former F1 driver Mark Webber has scooped one of Australia’s highest awards during the Australia day honours.

The former Red Bull driver will now be known as ‘Officer of the order of Australia’. This is one of Australia’s most prestigious awards, and celebrates what Mark has achieved not only just on the track, but off it as well.

AussieGrit (as he is known on twitter), has always been heavily involved in charity work during his career. The launch of his very own ‘Mark Webber Tasmanian Challenge’ back in 2003, was created to raise funds for children’s cancer research.

The likeable Aussie admitted that the award arrived as a surprise, but will uphold the honour that comes with such an award.

“I didn’t expect it at all, I didn’t think there would be anything coming along,” said Webber. 

“It’s a bit of a surprise. But I think it’s an absolute honour to be recognised at that level. It’s been a long-term run over here. I left a long time ago, and it’s been nice to fly the flag. You don’t look back too much … but I hope I represented Australia as best I could.”

Mark’s career in F1 started way back in 2001, when he was a test driver for the Benetton team. In 2002 Mark signed for the Minardi team, which was owned by fellow Aussie Paul Stoddart. Replacing Alonso in the car, Webber finished an impressive 5th first time out at the season opener in Melbourne.

The next four years were split between… 2 years at Jaguar, 2 years at Williams, before signing for Red Bull Racing for the start of the 2007 season. It was here, under Christian Horner’s stewardship that Mark enjoyed most success. The first of his 9 wins came in 2009, and who could forget the ‘multi 2-1’ debate from 2013.

After 3 years driving for Porsche in the world endurance championship, ‘aussiegrit’ finally hung up his gloves at the end of 2016.

Great way to sign out.