Motorsport: High hopes for Webber at Aussie GP

Mark Webber is the first Aussie GP winner since Alan Jones in the 1980s. Photo / Clive Mason/Getty Images

MELBOURNE - Mark Webber will be Australia's first grand prix-winning driver in action in 24 years when he competes at next month's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The last Australian to achieve the feat was former world champion Alan Jones, who won in Adelaide in 1986, and Webber will now carry the local crowd's hopes at Albert Park when the race - which was launched on Monday - is held in Melbourne for the 15th time.

Webber won in Germany and Brazil last year, finishing fourth overall in the world championship.

Twenty-six cars will race in Melbourne and there will be four new teams.

One of those is Mercedes GP, a team which includes seven-time world champion and comeback kid Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher even made an appearance, of sorts, at the glitzy launch on a television after being interviewed in the last day or two in Italy.

He told the crowd he could not resist the chance to become the first German driver to win a world championship in a Mercedes and was also looking forward to catching up with friend, Australian motorcycle champion Mick Doohan in Melbourne.

"It's a new challenge and a new experience for me this year, but knowing Ross (Brawn, Mercedes GP boss) so well and working with him again has made it very easy for me and I feel at home in the team already," he said.

The prospect of Webber and Schumacher on the podium was a "mouth-watering" one, Australian Grand Prix chief executive Drew Ward said.

"The scene is perfectly set for a great showdown with four world champions and the homegrown Mark Webber," he said at the launch.

"He's been contending for many years and this year he's in a proven race-winning car with a top tier team ... there's no disputing that the Red Bull team has arrived as a force in Formula One."

Rumours circulated last year that Schumacher might return to Formula One with Ferrari when driver Felipe Massa suffered a freak accident.

Schumacher then suffered his own neck injury but was now fully fit, Ward said.

"It's fantastic news, we've certainly had phenomenal interest from the public and that's really been borne out in ticket sales," he said.

Massa will compete along with Campos Meta driver Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late, great Ayrton Senna, who dominated Formula One before Schumacher.

- AAP