Webber: Hard to give up the adrenaline drug

Mark Webber put his Formula 1 career firmly in the past at the weekend by winning his first FIA world championship.

It is a drivers' title he shares with his two Porsche teammates in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the ever more popular world of prototype sports car racing.

Reportedly disillusioned with the direction of the category, the now 39-year-old Australian quit F1 just before the dawning of the controversial new 'power unit' era.

Webber told the Daily Mail that sportscar racing is now keeping his adrenaline flowing, "Keeping the momentum in motor sport by going into world endurance to work with a team and company like Porsche has helped me."

"It's hard mentally to give up the adrenaline drug of testing yourself. That's the challenge. It's about feet out of bed in the morning - what the f*ck am I going to do?'"

He is highly critical of the changes F1 has made over the past decade in particular, rejecting the view that things like 'DRS' overtaking makes the mid-2000s now seem "boring" in contrast.

"They say there was no overtaking. But if you look at the grandstands they were full," said Webber. "Look at the TV figures. Why were all those people watching then and not so many now?"

He also seems happy to have left some of his F1 relationships behind, even though Webber says his feud with former teammate Sebastian Vettel is now over.

Webber has clear views about how F1 is distancing itself from fans, "It is a technical sport, but we do not need to ram this down people’s throats. It’s almost that the audience are being over-educated about what is happening. They are given too much to consume"

"In the World Endurance Championships, we see cars side by side. Bang, bang, bang. Yes, there are loads of different tyre compounds, but does anybody care? No. They are racing each other. Awesome.The driver has to be the superstar. It is all about finding those gladiatorial components."

"How do you make it more human? MotoGP is a fantastic example – you can see the guys physically doing their trade. The other thing we need is Formula One cars to be like nothing else. Which they are not: they have never been closer to GP2 cars and sports cars in terms of performance."

"It needs to be an exceptional experience to watch, and drive. The cars need to be fast in the corners, not just on the straights, where if you are going 190mph or 210mph, who cares? But what about overtaking? He now has his foot right on the floor."

As for the current breed of drivers that are often accused of being too politically correct and controlled by thir team.

Webber opines, "All the personalities are in there. It’s just that the commercial and marketing teams hide them. There are too many other factors for drivers to be asked about – tyres, drive-throughs, why DRS didn’t work. They switch off."

As for triple F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, Webber said, "He is on fire in the cockpit. Absolutely on fire. He is phenomenally quick – that’s his big weapon. It is not the tactical, Germanic style of Michael (Schumacher) or Seb (Vettel); it is just lap time. He has feel, balance, is good in all conditions and pretty versatile."

And if was a team boss what would he look for in a driver, Webber answered, "Lewis in terms of marketing and pace. Seb in terms of tactics and developing the car."

As for Red Bull's Helmut Marko, however, "We never had a relationship, so it makes no difference," Webber said.

And his former team boss Christian Horner? In his autobiography Aussie Grit, Webber suggested he and Horner drifted apart.

"Initially Christian did well to keep his feet firmly on the ground as he started to mix in supposedly higher circles, but inevitably you could see him being seduced by the trappings of an F1 lifestyle," he said.

Asked if he has since reconciled with Horner, Webber said: "He seems pretty busy at the moment, so we'll leave him to it. We are both big enough and ugly enough to move on. We are all sleeping at night."