Oscar Piastri reshuffles management team as Mark Webber steps back from trackside role. Oscar Piastri confirms that Mark Webber will remain his manager .

There has been something of a reshuffle within the inner circle of the young Australian driver following the disappointing finale of the 2025 season.

A new structure inside the McLaren garage

Oscar Piastri will continue to rely on the support of his manager Mark Webber this year, although in a slightly different capacity compared to 2025. Last season, the constant trackside presence of the experienced former Red Bull driver and WEC world champion almost turned into a double-edged sword for the young McLaren star. In the closing Grands Prix, Oscar Piastri slipped from first to third place in the championship standings, suffering a fate reminiscent of Webber’s own dramatic collapse in the 2010 title fight.

The parallel inevitably drew significant media attention to Webber’s role within Piastri’s entourage, along with criticism from some former colleagues, including Ralf Schumacher. It also raised legitimate questions about whether history was repeating itself some 15 years later — which, more or less, it ultimately did.

It may well be from this context that the 24-year-old decided to partially rethink the structure of the people closest to him inside the McLaren garage. Oscar Piastri will still benefit from Webber’s experience, but slightly more… from a distance. The Australian manager will continue to oversee Oscar’s interests, focusing mainly on commercial opportunities and attending fewer races throughout the season. This marks a change from previous years, when Webber’s presence in the papaya garage was a constant feature of every race weekend.

The confirmation came directly from Piastri himself during the FIA press conference held in the final week of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Piastri’s announcement regarding Webber

“Yes, that’s true,” Oscar Piastri explained when asked about Mark Webber’s adjusted role for the upcoming season. “But there isn’t a specific reason. We made this decision just to change things up a bit. Mark is still very involved in the project and over the past few weeks we’ve spoken many times. He simply won’t be at the track as much alongside me anymore. That’s all there is to it, there’s nothing else to say, and I don’t see any particular reason that led to this decision.”

Over the course of the season, Oscar will be joined by his former Prema Racing race engineer, Pedro Matos. A closer collaboration with his performance coach, Emma Murray, is also planned. Mark Webber is widely regarded as one of the key figures behind Oscar Piastri’s rise: he has managed him since 2019 and played a decisive role in orchestrating the bold move away from Alpine that ultimately led to Oscar Piastri’s Formula 1 debut with McLaren in 2023.