Mark Webber will drive in the first Formula One race of next year, the Australian Grand Prix in late March, despite suffering a double fracture of his right leg on Saturday. That is the view of his father, Alan, who told The Times yesterday there was “not a doubt in the world” his son would be fit for Melbourne. His injuries, which required a metal rod to be inserted into his leg, are likely to delay him testing the Red Bull-Renault until a few weeks before the start of the season.

Alan Webber experienced one of a father’s worst nightmares when he drove past the scene of an accident near Port Arthur in southeastern Tasmania on Saturday morning to find that the victim was his son. He had been helping to unload competitors’ mountain bikes in the annual five-day Mark Webber Challenge pentathlon race before driving down the same narrow, gravel mountain track the athletes followed.

There, Alan found Mark on the ground, shin sticking out at right angles, the skin punctured and both tibia and fibula bones broken. “It was messy,” Alan said.

Webber, 32, had been traveling at 30mph on his bike as he negotiated a corner after a fast descent before colliding head-on with a Nissan four-wheel drive vehicle, crashing into its bull bars. Twenty metres or so behind him was his race team-mate, Daniel MacPherson, the actor who starred in Neighbours and The Bill, but he escaped unscathed, as did the male Nissan driver, who will not be charged, according to police. Webber’s braking skills — he locked both wheels to skid sideways — may have saved his life. “Mark’s upper body is hurt but only superficially,” his father said. “His spine, head and pelvis are fine.”

The accident occurred at 12.40pm and Webber was in the operating theatre of Hobart Private Hospital by 5pm, having been flown from the scene by helicopter to the island’s capital some 70 miles away.

Mark’s mother, Di, was on a boat cruise along the spectacular coastline of the Tasman Peninsula when the accident took place and was hurriedly dropped ashore. “We were with Mark till 4.30pm, and then again till midnight after he returned to the ward at 9.15pm,” Alan Webber said. “But he was so drugged up he didn’t know who we were. Today, he’s back to his cheeky self, although he’s obviously feeling some pain. But at least he can self-administer morphine. The doctors expect no further problems at all. The good thing is that the fractures are well away from his joints.”

Webber, whose home is in Buckinghamshire, was due to have left Australia today to prepare for three days of testing for Red Bull-Renault in Jerez, Spain.

“Mark will have to stay in the hospital here for another four or five days,” his father said. “It’s a question of whether he recuperates in Melbourne or comes up to our house in Queanbeyan, near Canberra, where he could use the Australian Institute of Sport to help aid his rehabilitation,” Alan said.