Although admitting she had some contacts with companies in his home country – some of which actually led to small-time deals inside the sport – Neal insisted none of those contracts turned into multi-year collaborations.
“In regards to locally based companies supporting Mark, we haven't had any of those for a number of years now, and more's the pity,” said Neal in an interview with The Australian newspaper, while also admitting a lot of frustration regarding the complete lack of interest from Australian companies when it comes to their only F1 driver.
“(Australian) companies are incredibly naive when it comes to this sport. There are lots of examples in the past of (domestic) sponsors getting behind drivers. For example, in Brazil, local sponsors have gotten behind drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Rubens Barrichello and have gotten a lot out of it,” opinionated Australian GP winner and 1980 world champion Alan Jones himself.
Although far from title contention until this season, Webber scored some incredible results throughout the first half of 2009. The Aussie scored one win and 4 additional podiums this year, which rank him on a decent 3rd place overall. After winning the German Grand Prix two weekends ago, Webber became the driver who had to wait the longest before scoring his maiden F1 win in the history of the sport, at his 132nd start in the series.
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