Interview with Kyle Wilson Clarke - Engineer No.2 Porsche

Mark Webber’s final race in his illustrious career was the 6 Hours of Bahrain, and we know now that his place in the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid will be taken in 2017 by New Zealander Earl Bamber. 

The last round of the 2016 FIA WEC signalled an end to a career which began in the early nineties with Webber’s Australian Formula Ford debut through to the defence this season of his hard-won 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship title.

One man who is in a perfect position to reminisce about Webber’s time at Porsche is his engineer Kyle-Wilson Clarke who was part of the team who clinched the 2015 world championship titles.

Wilson-Clarke was in the perfect position to witness and study how Webber worked and he reinforced the notion that the Australian was the consummate team player.

“Mark brought so much to the table professionally and it worked perfectly in the tight unit we have in the team,” said Wilson-Clarke. “You must have that mentality, you need to be strong together. It is in times of adversity that you see how strong you are. It is easy when things are going well to think you are the best and everything is fantastic, but it is when things don’t go so well that you realise how strong you are as a group.

“We will miss him of course, he will leave a big hole but he is still involved with the sport and with the Porsche brand and hungry for that,” continued Wilson-Clarke. “I think he will miss the racing part, but he will still be involved in motorsport and will be at some of the races relaying his wisdom and experience.”

One of Webber’s key strengths was his development input to the Porsche 919 Hybrid and his forensic knowledge of circuits and racing strategy in general.

“Mark has an incredible memory and he could always recall certain things about certain traits at specific tracks and he always ‘buzzed’ us bits of information saying ‘guys don’t forget about this’ or ‘make sure that’s on the radar’ for the start of the weekend, so we didn’t get caught out,” says Wilson-Clarke.

“I think that in our car we had a fantastic dynamic with the three different drivers – Webber, Hartley and Bernhard. There wasn’t a hierarchy as such, but there was a clear definition between the three guys. He was a fantastic asset to the team.”

Sam Smith

A full version of this interview first appeared on www.motorsportmagazine.com Read it by clicking HERE

Photos:  Porsche Motorsport