Oscar Piastri Parts Ways with Mark Webber's Management Team

Oscar Piastri and the management team led by former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber and Ann Neal have mutually ended their working relationship. The news came in a short announcement issued on Piastri's behalf on Monday, straight after the Brazilian Grand Prix. For a driver who has spent most of his F1 career with one management group, it's a notable change, and it lands at a point where the split has been visible for some time.

How the partnership began

Webber, a nine-time grand prix winner, started working with Piastri in 2019, before the young Australian's rise through the single-seater ranks had built much momentum. That timing matters. Managers at that stage tend to do less glamorous work than the headlines suggest: sorting out contracts, lining up test seats, and making sure a driver's next step doesn't depend on one team's goodwill.

Piastri's results in the junior categories made that job easier. He won back-to-back titles in Formula 3 and Formula 2 in 2020 and 2021. Those are the two rungs most often used as proof of F1 readiness, so a driver holding both titles usually has options. Piastri's problem was that his backer at the time, Alpine, didn't get him onto the grid in 2022, despite that résumé.

The McLaren move that changed everything

This is where Webber's role becomes central to how Piastri's career turned out. Alpine was still trying to keep hold of its prospect over the longer term and wanted to loan him to Williams for a couple of seasons. Webber didn't accept that arrangement. Reading the situation, he judged that Alpine had mishandled Piastri's F1 contract and that a window existed for the driver to leave.

He pushed for a move to McLaren for 2023, taking the seat Daniel Ricciardo had vacated. The switch surprised Alpine and much of the paddock, and in hindsight it looks like the decisive call of Piastri's early career. It pulled him out of the sidelines and away from the kind of midfield or backmarker seat that can stall a young driver's development. He finished on the podium in his rookie season, which few people in the paddock would have predicted when the deal was first reported.

Piastri's first grand prix wins followed in 2024. He then came within a whisker of the world championship in 2025. In March of that year, his management secured a new multi-year contract with McLaren. Webber later said Piastri remained happy with that deal, even as speculation linked McLaren with a possible move for Max Verstappen and there were suggestions Piastri might look elsewhere regardless.

Signs of distance before the split

The working arrangement began to change this year. Webber had previously been a regular presence in the paddock alongside Piastri. For 2026, that role moved "behind the scenes", a shift Piastri himself acknowledged during pre-season testing. Piastri described it as "just taking a bit of a step back, that's all", and at the time it read as a logistical adjustment rather than a warning sign.

Looking back, the signals were there. Last season, McLaren had to balance the championship fight between Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris, and Piastri came out on the wrong side of several of those calls. Webber was reportedly unimpressed with how the team handled those moments and with the explanation offered after Piastri slumped badly in the final quarter of the year, a slump that cost him the title.

It's worth being clear about what isn't known. Neither McLaren nor Piastri's camp has directly addressed whether there was serious tension between them, beyond the usual friction that comes when a race team and a driver's personal group pull in different directions. That's common in F1, where a team's interests and a driver's long-term career interests overlap but aren't identical. Without more on the record, the most that can be said is that the relationship had cooled, and that the team-versus-driver dynamic under a title battle was a plausible source of strain.

What the split means for Piastri

The departure of a long-standing management group usually raises a practical question: who handles the next contract conversation, and how does that change the driver's leverage? Webber's statement points to a new management structure for Piastri, and that will be the thing to watch. A driver in a multi-year deal with a top team has less need for aggressive contract brokering than one hunting for a seat, but the role still covers sponsorship, media, and relationships across the paddock.

Webber framed the decision as shared. "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," he said. He added that the arrangement would "allow Oscar to build on his achievements under a new management structure, and for us to embark on our new ventures." He closed with: "We wish Oscar all the very best for a long and successful career."

Piastri, for his part, said Webber and Neal's "guidance has been invaluable, particularly in navigating the beginning of my F1 career". That's a fair summary of what they delivered. The harder question is what comes next. Piastri is still a title contender at McLaren, and his next management team will inherit a career built on a clear run of results and a few difficult moments. My read is that the timing, just after a race weekend and with the 2026 season underway, suggests both sides wanted a clean break rather than a drawn-out disagreement. The results on track over the coming races will show whether the change has any effect on the driver himself.