Dodgy Business

Times of economic crisis, recession and tightening of belts. Wherever you look, papers and websites are publishing their top ten tips to cut personal spending and stave off bankruptcy.

"Why are we paying for drama classes when they're already female?" I joked to my other half, earning a rapid response Timberland boot up the rear. "Just shut up and take them." Okay then. I resolved that the kitten we're about to buy for the kids should be male, just to redress the domestic imbalance a little.

No sooner had I dropped the girls off and got back into the car than Five Live was announcing a drama all of its own for Red Bull Racing; Mark Webber had broken his leg while taking part in his eponymous charity Challenge in Tasmania.

It was Mario Andretti who said of Chris Amon that the secret of eternal life for the human race was for Amon to go into the undertaking business. The Kiwi earned a justified reputation as the unluckiest man in grand prix racing and it was hugely unjust that he should end his career without a single victory. Webber though, does not seem far behind his fellow Antipodean in the misfortune stakes.

Mark Webber during the cycling stage before his road accident © Mark Webber Challenge

Back in 2005, Webber could have driven a Renault but instead, against the advice of Flavio Briatore, he plumped for Williams. For the next two years, as Fernando Alonso sped to consecutive world titles, every time Webber passed Briatore in the paddock, Flav would grimace and shake his head. No words were necessary.

Broken legs are never good, but you really don't need one when the F1 regs have just undergone their biggest change in ages, a winter test programme looms and Sebastian Vettel has arrived at Red Bull Racing.

Webber has always done the job of getting on top of his teammates early on, establishing a psychological edge in the most important competition a driver faces. He's going to struggle to do it this time even if, as claimed, he will be fit again and on the grid in Melbourne next March.

The Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge is not the usual 10k or half marathon you might do to raise a few quid for a deserving charity. It was Webber's own idea and it began in 2003 when he asked Tasmanian-born extreme athlete Tim Saul to come up with a challenge that would give a huge sense of satisfaction to anyone who achieved it. Saul did not disappoint. I know this because ex-Autosport colleague Anthony Rowlinson - who is obscenely fit for a hack - did it.

So you get the idea, day one of that ten-day inaugural challenge involved a 95-mile mountain bike ride from Marrawah to Pleman River in 'Tassie.' Day two was 17.5 miles on a mountain bike, 55 on a road bike, another 20 on the mountain bike and then 10 across open water in a kayak.

Day five involved an 18-mile hike through a remote thousand-year-old forest in the island's south west corner on a trail (polite description) that is walked by fewer than 60 people a year, with oozing mud that can be two feet deep. Webber was trained for the enduro by former marine and ex-Benetton fitness guru Bernie Shrosbee, who couldn't picture anyone else he'd worked with in F1 going anywhere near an event like it. You get the picture.

Mark's grandparents were touched by cancer and, as a top sportsman, he often comes into contact with sick children. He set up the Challenge to do something about it, the inaugural event's goal being to raise £100,000 for various cancer charities. As the event grew, it was shortened to five days for logistical reasons but is no less gruelling. Webber became even more closely involved in 2006 when he established the Mark Webber Challenge Foundation to umbrella his philanthropic activities and give him more direct involvement in the selection of beneficiaries.

How ironic then, that it should be Webber himself who came into 40mph contact with a Nissan X-Trail while on one of the cycling components of the Challenge. Especially in view of the fact that just two years ago it was Webber calling for more awareness of cyclists from motorists as he accepted a position as patron of the Amy Gillett-Safe Foundation.

Gillett was an Australian cyclist and rower who represented her country at both disciplines before tragically losing her life at the age of 29 when an 18-year-old German learner driver lost control of her car and ploughed into a squad of training Australian cyclists in July 2005.

Mark Webber uses ropes to cross a river © Mark Webber Challenge

Under her maiden name of Safe, Amy rowed in an Australian eight in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, going on to marry the team coach, Simon Gillett. When she failed to make the team for the Sydney games, she turned to cycling and was part of the Italian-based Australian Institute of Sports women's road squad, training for the Tour of Thuringen when the accident happened. Her death had a profound effect in Australian sporting circles, not least on Webber.

The kind of bloke Mark is, he won't be sitting there in hand-wringing anguish at his own misfortune, he'll be thinking, there but for the grace of God. Let's wish him a speedy recovery, for both his own sake and that of the sport.

Back in hackdom, the usual form is that while Webber and his challenge buddies are finding out all about personal growth and their own limits, we are doing the same in a more traditional manner through Raymond Blanc's multi-course gourmet extravaganza at the Manoir aux Quatre Saisons for the Honda end of season media lunch. It's so good that I'd challenge even the highly punchable Michael Winner to find fault. But not this year. Late doors, a missive arrived announcing that, with great regret, the lunch was cancelled.

Given the current state of the motor industry and with Honda on short time working, it was considered inappropriate. Blast, for purely selfish reasons. In the odd enquiring but largely cynical minds of journalists, the immediate reaction is to conclude that Nick Fry and Ross Brawn would need to have been magicians to conjure anything positive to say about 2008.

And to wonder what might be going on chez Honda that we don't know about. But instead, let's thank them for convivial occasions past and say hat's off to them for being in touch with the times.

Not for them a Steven Norris. You may remember the former minister of transport who, at a time when political capital was being made out of improved public transport, championed the cause of the private car, saying: "You have your own company, your own temperature control, your own music and you don't have to put up with dreadful human beings sitting alongside you."

One thought does occur, though. If the climate is that sensitive, how long before manufacturer board bean counters start to strike red lines through Formula 1 programmes?