 During the 1997 season , Webber was approached by Mercedes @-@ AMG to compete in sportscar racing . Although he initially declined the offer he was persuaded at the end of the year when invited to participate in a test session for the team at the A1 @-@ Ring in Austria . Mercedes @-@ AMG were suitably impressed with Webber , and he was signed as the official Mercedes works junior driver for the 1998 FIA GT Championship , alongside reigning champion Bernd Schneider . Travelling around the world , including the United States , Japan and Europe , the pair won five of the ten rounds on their way to second in the overall standings , beaten to the Championship by teammates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta by just eight seconds in the final race at Laguna Seca . Webber remained with the Mercedes @-@ AMG team for 1999 , and was promoted to his own race car for the season . However , his sportscar career came to an early end after he flipped twice on the Mulsanne Straight during practice for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans race . An aerodynamic fault on the team 's Mercedes @-@ Benz CLRs caused Webber to become spectacularly airborne during both practice and race @-@ day warm up , with the same fate <unk> teammate Peter Dumbreck five hours into the race . Both drivers escaped uninjured , but the crashes forced Mercedes to shelve their sportscar program for the year and Webber to reconsider a return to open wheel racing . 
