Oscar Piastri Cuts Ties With Mark Webber’s Management After Seven Years Together

Oscar Piastri has left the management team that helped steer him into Formula 1. A statement released on behalf of the McLaren driver on Monday, after the Brazilian Grand Prix, said Piastri and the team headed by ex-F1 driver Mark Webber and Ann Neal had mutually ended their agreement.

The move closes a partnership that began in 2019, and the announcement didn’t say who will form Piastri’s new management structure or when it will be in place.

“I’d like to thank Mark and Ann for all their support and advice over the years,” said Piastri. “Their guidance has been invaluable, particularly in navigating the beginning of my F1 career.” He added: “I wish them all the best going forward.”

Webber put the timing down to his shrinking role. “Following our reduced trackside involvement this season, we have collectively agreed that now is an appropriate time to bring our management agreement to a close. This will allow Oscar to build on his achievements under a new management structure, and for us to embark on our new ventures. We wish Oscar all the very best for a long and successful career.”

The nine-time Grand Prix winner also said he and Neal were “proud to have played a pivotal role in the formative years of Oscar’s career and to have placed him in F1 so that he could compete at the front so early on.” It’s a warm goodbye. It also comes with just three races left in 2026.

From a ‘Step Back’ to a Clean Break

The cracks in the partnership began to show in February. Speaking on the final day of preseason testing in Bahrain, Piastri played down the change. “There wasn’t anything specific; we just made a decision for things to look a bit different,” he said. “Mark is still very much involved, and I’ve been in contact with him a lot over the last few weeks. He just won’t be trackside as much anymore.”

He called it “just taking a bit of a step back, that’s all.” With Webber no longer regularly at circuits, Pedro Matos, Piastri’s former Formula 2 race engineer at Prema, and mental coach Emma Murray were among those helping him.

Not everyone bought the calm version. On the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Ralf Schumacher claimed that “the relationship between Zak Brown and Mark Webber had cooled, so to speak.” Crash.net noted that this was Schumacher’s own claim, not a confirmed fact.

By April, Piastri was framing it as a natural step. “I think when I first got into F1, Mark was coming up with questions and ideas that literally hadn’t even entered my brain,” he said on the High Performance Podcast. “I think there’s naturally less and less for Mark to do on a racing side of things the more experienced I become.”

Webber Outplayed Alpine to get Oscar Piastri into McLaren

Webber’s biggest move came in 2022. Piastri had won back-to-back Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in 2020 and 2021, but Alpine, then his backer, failed to get him onto the grid. Webber turned down a proposed loan to Williams and pushed for a McLaren seat for 2023 in place of Daniel Ricciardo, catching Alpine and the paddock off guard.

The gamble actually paid off. Piastri scored a podium as a rookie, won his first race in 2024 and narrowly missed the 2025 world title. In March 2025, his management landed him a new multi-year deal.

That title fight with Lando Norris had left things out of whack. Webber was reportedly unhappy with how McLaren handled the battle between Piastri and Norris, and with the team’s explanation for Piastri’s slump late in the year. Neither side has ever addressed any serious tension directly.

Now the 25-year-old picks his own people for the first time since he was a teenager chasing a seat in Formula 1.

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