Oscar Piastri lifts lid on MAJOR Mark Webber role in F1 rookie season

Oscar Piastri

Piastri lifts lid on MAJOR Webber role in F1 rookie season to help him avoid a huge shock

Oscar Piastri has made an excellent impression since stepping into a full-time F1 seat with McLaren this season

Harry Smith

Thursday 15 June 2023 22:27

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Oscar Piastri has offered a peek behind the curtain of his relationship with Mark Webber, explaining what his manager has contributed to his rookie F1 season.

The Australian rookie needed just three races to claim his first points as an F1 driver, capitalising on a chaotic Australian Grand Prix to take points in front of his home crowd.

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While Piastri's decision to ditch long-time backers Alpine for McLaren is looking like an ill-conceived one, the 22-year-old is enjoying a relatively calm start to life in the sport.

Piastri may be trailing team-mate Lando Norris 12-5 on points this season, but Norris is one of the most highly-regarded drivers in the sport.

Webber's guiding hand

"His advice was to not underestimate the challenge of Formula 1 and how big of a step up it is, not just from the cars but from everything," Piastri explained to Motorsport.com.

"The amount of people you need to interact with, the media commitments, and the sponsor commitments. It's all much higher than before.

"I think having him reminding me of that before the season started was nice, so not to be shocked when I arrived. That's probably been the biggest thing."

Piastri has made an excellent impression during his rookie F1 campaign

Piastri then explained some of the specific areas where Webber had helped out during Piastri's stint with McLaren.

"But he's very helpful with small driving tips here and there as well, and sometimes thinking of questions for the engineers that don't even come to my head at the moment.

"He's still very sharp. He thinks like a racing driver still and is always trying to get the best out of me."