As Formula One fires up again this week after its mid-season break, Mark Webber is in a great place.

He’s leading the world championship, driving a super car, Red Bull Racing’s RB6, and 10-time grand prix winner Gerhard Berger predicts the team can dominate F1 for years.

While Webber’s absolute focus and priority is the remaining seven GPs of the season, he’s also having the satisfaction of watching IndyCar races on TV and seeing a fellow Aussie he helped out several years ago lead that series.

Webber knows well what it is to be trying to climb the ladder of international motorsport and find yourself skint.

He recalls that, when he was in that position a decade ago, another sporting product of Queanbeyan, rugby great David Campese, came to his rescue with a loan believed to have been about $100,000, since fully repaid.

When Will Power ran into the same “wall” five years later Webber contributed a very large sum to help him secure a drive in Europe’s World Series by Renault and made some vital introductions.

Power didn’t make it to F1 but has blossomed in America, winning five races in the Indy series this season – the latest of them last weekend at the Californian circuit, Infineon Raceway, from which he was airlifted a year earlier with a broken back that threatened to end his career.

Power has a 59-point buffer over Scotsman Dario Franchitti, and a 95-point advantage over New Zealander Scott Dixon, with the remaining four rounds over the next five weeks on oval tracks that Power is yet to conquer.

He hasn’t yet finished higher than fifth on an oval.

Indy race wins are worth 50 points, with two bonus points for leading the most laps in a race and another for pole position, of which Power now has a record eight this season.

Power, 29, from Toowoomba, has greatly appreciated Webber’s financial backing and the continuing moral support.

“I can’t tell you exactly why he helped me out, but he’d been through exactly the same thing as me trying to find sponsorship,” Power says.

“It’s important to help out because it’s just so tough to get to the top of the sport, because it costs so much to race.

“When I am well-established and in a strong place financially I would like to help someone up-and-coming out too.”

Webber says Power was “so determined, incredibly focused, a guy who had talent and just needed a bit of advice and a few introductions”.

“Will’s done an amazing job to come through with so many wins, and picking up racing on ovals after years of focusing only on road racing is no mean feat,” he says.

“It’s fantastic to see his hard work and determination finally pay off.

“I’m glad I was able to give him a little boost when he needed it.

“Maybe he’ll be in a position to repay the favor to someone else coming through the ranks one day.”

With Australia’s F1 driver-in-waiting Daniel Ricciardo, a 21-year-old from Perth already backed by Red Bull and installed as reserve driver for its F1 teams (the other is Scuderia Toro Rosso, the former Minardi), Webber is now supporting a 16-year New Zealander, Mitch Evans.

Refreshed after a four-week break, Webber this week heads to Belgium’s magnificent Spa-Francorchamps, the favourite circuit of most F1 drivers, for the 13th round of the world championship.

He will turn 34 there on Saturday, and in all likelihood will bow out of F1 at 35 – at the end of next season, when his extended contract expires.

Spa and Monza, home of the Italian GP that follows, may be the toughest tracks Red Bull encounter this year because of the long straights that could expose its Renault engines, which are reputedly 30 horsepower down on the Mercedes and Ferrari engines of the other frontrunners.

But the RB6’s superior aerodynamics may overcome even that.

Berger, whose 10 wins included two on the streets of Adelaide, is a close associate of Red Bull tycoon, fellow Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, and convinced him several years ago that the man he needed to design his cars was Adrian Newey, the British genius who created many winning cars for the McLaren team.

Aerodynamics – the way air flows over, under and off an F1 car – is Newey’s strong suit.

“Aerodynamics are now the lifeblood of an F1 car,” Berger says.

“This is why I see Red Bull Racing being at the front for the next few years.

“I always advised Mateschitz to go for Newey.

“At first I was a bit nervous because it didn’t immediately work out.

“I think at the start he (Newey) was too distracted with management matters.

“Since he concentrated on his specialty he has shown he is in a class of one.”

Berger and another Austrian F1 great, triple world champion Niki Lauda, reckon Webber’s teammate, 23-year-old German Sebastian Vettel - who is 10 points behind Webber and third in the championship, with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton between them - is still the more likely world champion this year.

Not because of any favoritism within the team, but because the youngster’s sheer speed – evidenced by taking the past four pole positions – will surely soon be matched by the necessary maturity.

However, Berger believes that Vettel may have under-estimated Webber.

“And that’s a problem he is sharing with others that did not expect Webber to be so fast this year,” Berger says.

“Mark is a very good man, but in general I would say Vettel is stronger.”

Lauda says “Webber has surely had a cheerful (northern) summer break and Vettel will be fretting for a while”.

“They have the fastest car and I have always believed that it is only a matter of time before they will prevail and internally come to terms with errors of the human and technical kind,” Lauda says.

While he tips Vettel to come out on top it’s with the proviso that “he has to bring it in first”.

Webber says the RB6 is “very, very strong at most tracks, so we’re ready to take on anyone at any venue and I’m looking forward to all the races coming up”.

“I have a few of my goals already in the pocket this year, but we have some real signature events coming up which I would like to win ...

And along with that hopefully comes something special.”

Standing firmly in Webber’s corner is Flavio Briatore, who as Renault team boss guided Michael Schumacher to the first two of his seven world championships and Fernando Alonso – fifth in this year’s championship with Ferrari, behind McLaren’s Jenson Button and 20 points in arrears of Webber - to two titles as well.

Briatore has pulled many strings behind the scenes in Webber’s career.

Although banned from F1 a year ago the mysterious Italian has reappeared at GPs in recent months.

“Mark is a driver capable of exceptional feats … he uses his brain, unlike many others,” Briatore says.

“He has now reached a maturity and inner calmness that can take him really far.”

In a little more than 12 weeks we’ll know how far.

Remaining F1 races

Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps), August 29; Italy (Monza), September 12; Singapore (street circuit, at night), September 26; Japan (Suzuka), October 10; South Korea (new Yeongam circuit), October 20; Brazil (Sao Paulo), November 7; Abu Dhabi, November 14.