Mark Webber ‘involved’ in McLaren ‘discussions’ over Oscar Piastri’s team role

Oscar Piastri said manager Mark Webber has been involved in discussions between himself and McLaren regarding what he is and is not happy to do, though he has not been needed to offer specific advice regarding team orders.

Webber was at Red Bull alongside Sebastian Vettel during the team’s title-winning years from 2010 to 2013, with the Australian famously saying after victory at Silverstone in 2010: “Not bad for a number two driver”, with ‘Aussie Grit’ now having Piastri under his wing as his client.

Oscar Piastri: Current McLaren situation ‘quite different’ from Mark Webber’s at Red Bull

It was revealed ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend that McLaren would be expected to favour Lando Norris in the title run-in against Max Verstappen on marginal team orders, with Norris having been 44 points ahead of Piastri and in the best place to challenge the Red Bull driver’s World Championship lead.

The Australian narrowed that gap, though, after taking an excellent victory in Baku at the weekend as Norris recovered to finish fourth, having started 15th on the grid after an early exit in Q1.

But given his manager’s experience in Formula 1 and how to work with team orders in the past, this was put to the young Australian about how much input the former Williams, Jaguar and Red Bull driver had in terms of advice.

“Not like specifically, no,” Piastri told Spanish broadcaster DAZN when asked if Webber had helped him with how to handle team orders.

“Of course he’s been a part of team orders before, quite influentially. I think our situation is quite different from what Mark experienced, so there’s not really been a need for any specific advice, but of course he’s been in this kind of situation before and knows how it plays out.

“He’s been involved in the discussions with me, the team about what we are happy to do or what we are not happy to do and stuff like that.

“I guess he’s given advice but not like ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’.”

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella addressed the state of play regarding how the team will approach favouring Norris over Piastri at the weekend in Singapore, with the gap having narrowed between their two drivers on Sunday.

“I said already that we have two number one drivers effectively,” he told media in Baku, “and having two number one drivers means that we approach things first of all in the interest of the team.

“The interest of the team is to win the Constructors’ Championship, and yes, is to win also the Drivers’ Championship.

“Lando was in the most favourable position before this race. I think he still is in the most favourable position. So more naturally, we would have supported Lando.

“But I think we have evidence today [Baku] that actually, interestingly, it was Lando supporting Oscar and enabling Oscar’s victory thanks to driving for the team and driving to support his team-mate. So I think that remains our approach.

“We always intended to review after every event, with each driver, with the drivers together, what was going to be the best approach for the next races. We will do it and set the plan for Singapore.”

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