Webber backed for world title glory

Mark Webber has been hailed as a potential world champion of the future, with his Jaguar boss claiming the Australian is “in the Michael Schumacher league”.

Webber has raised many eyebrows in the Formula One paddock this season after joining Jaguar from Minardi over the winter.

He has regularly qualified inside the top 10 – and started a career-best third in Brazil – on his way to 17 points, giving Jaguar their best-ever Formula One season by some distance.

In contrast to Webber’s heroics, his team-mates at Jaguar, Justin Wilson and Antonio Pizzonia, have yet to record a top-eight finish.

Those performances have caught the eye of Tony Purnell, chief executive of Ford’s Premier Performance Division which effectively runs Jaguar.

Purnell said: “I thought he was a pretty good racing driver at the beginning of the year and I guess a lot of punters would have said ‘that’s an interesting choice, I wonder how he’ll get on’.

“At the start of the season I myself thought ‘he’s not quite top-flight yet but I like the way he approaches his job, let’s see how he goes in testing’. Now I think, ‘blimey this bloke is good’.

“I’m very surprised that people aren’t talking about him in even more complimentary terms than they already are because I see him in the Michael Schumacher league.

“I’ve spent some time with Michael and have some good friends at Ferrari. Michael is a brilliant driver and seems to deliver on demand and I see exactly the same in what Mark does.”