Oscar Piastri Ends Management Partnership with Mark Webber

Oscar Piastri has brought an end to his long-running association with the management team led by Mark Webber and Ann Neal, drawing a firm line under one of the most influential partnerships in recent Formula 1 history.

The McLaren driver confirmed the split in a statement issued on Monday in the wake of the Brazilian Grand Prix, describing the move as a mutual decision to terminate their agreement.

It closes a chapter that began in 2019, when nine-time grand prix winner Webber and Neal took a chance on a sharp, unpolished Australian teenager just as his junior career was about to ignite. Their timing proved immaculate. So did their impact.

Piastri’s rise through the ranks was ruthless. Formula 3 champion in 2020. Formula 2 champion in 2021. Back-to-back titles that should have guaranteed a swift graduation to F1. Instead, Alpine stumbled.

The French manufacturer, then backing Piastri, failed to secure him a race seat for 2022. Plans to park him at Williams on loan for a couple of seasons never convinced Webber, who saw a future world champion being nudged towards the slow lane. Alpine tried to keep a hold of him on vague long-term promises. Webber pushed back.

Crucially, he also spotted the contractual gap. Alpine’s mishandling of Piastri’s F1 deal opened a door, and Webber drove straight through it. The result was one of the most dramatic moves of the modern era: a switch to McLaren for 2023 in place of Daniel Ricciardo, a deal that blindsided Alpine and sent shockwaves through the paddock.

It changed everything. Instead of spending his early F1 years grinding away in a backmarker or drifting in midfield anonymity, Piastri stepped straight into a front-running environment. By the end of his rookie season he was a grand prix podium finisher, a newcomer with the composure and speed to unsettle established stars.

The trajectory only sharpened. His first F1 wins arrived in 2024. In 2025 he came agonisingly close to the ultimate prize, narrowly missing out on the world championship. The foundations of that rise were laid not only in the cockpit but in the boardrooms and back offices where Webber and Neal operated.

Their influence was still being felt as recently as March last year, when Piastri’s camp secured a new multi-year McLaren contract. At the time, speculation swirled around a potential Max Verstappen move to the team and whispers that Piastri might look elsewhere. Webber publicly insisted his driver remained happy with the deal.

Yet the dynamic began to shift. Where Webber had once been a constant presence in the paddock at Piastri’s side, this season he and Neal deliberately faded from the front line. Piastri described the change during pre-season testing as “just taking a bit of a step back”, a move that parked them more firmly “behind the scenes”.

In the background, there were tensions to navigate. Last season McLaren’s attempt to juggle a title fight between Piastri and team-mate Lando Norris left the Australian on the wrong side of key calls more than once. Strategy swings, internal priorities, and a late-season slump that wrecked his championship bid did not sit well with Webber. He was unimpressed by both the decisions and the explanations.

Whether that frustration ever hardened into serious friction between McLaren and Piastri’s camp has never been publicly confirmed. Both sides kept any disagreements within the usual bounds of a top-level team managing two ambitious drivers and a management group fiercely protective of its man.

Now, the quiet repositioning has become a clean break.

“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,” Webber said, framing the split as a natural evolution rather than a rupture.

“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 sentiment underlines the scale of what has been achieved since 2019. Webber and Neal took Piastri from promising junior to proven race winner, from a contract dispute on the sidelines to the sharp end of the grid. They leave with their part of the job emphatically done.

For Piastri, the next phase begins now. A new management structure, the same unforgiving spotlight, and a career already shaped by bold decisions. The question is no longer whether he belongs at the front of F1. It is who will guide him through the battles still to come.