The Oscar Piastri management arrangement is over. The McLaren driver has split from his team led by Mark Webber and Ann Webber, with both sides saying they “mutually agreed to terminate” the deal. The news landed on the Monday after the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
What was announced about Oscar Piastri’s management
A joint statement confirmed the end of the agreement, and Piastri will operate under a new management structure from here. The Australian, who is in his fourth season in F1 and a nine-time Grand Prix winner, thanked the Webbers for their guidance. “Their guidance has been invaluable, particularly in navigating the beginning of my F1 career,” he said.
Webber, himself a nine-time winner, said his team was proud to have placed Piastri in F1 “so that he could compete at the front so early on”. He added that following their reduced trackside involvement this season, the two sides felt it was the right time to close the agreement.
How the partnership began
The story goes back to 2019. The Webbers started working with Piastri that year, when he won the Formula Renault Eurocup and joined the Renault junior programme. Titles in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2020 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2021 followed.
Then came the turning point. Renault’s rebranded Alpine team failed to promote Piastri from reserve to a race seat, and it was Webber who opened talks with McLaren and secured a deal for a 2023 debut, replacing fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo. It was a decisive move. Piastri took two podiums as a rookie, won his first Grand Prix in Hungary in 2024, and in 2025 mounted a serious title charge before losing out to team-mate Lando Norris.
A quieter Webber role in 2026
The split has been coming in a quiet way. The Webbers stepped back from a front-line role this year and went from a regular presence in the paddock to only fleeting appearances. In their place, Piastri’s former Prema race engineer Pedro Matos and his mental coach Emma Murray have taken on a bigger role at the track as part of his close team.
That matters because it shows the decision was less a shock than a formal tidying-up. Piastri has been building a smaller circle around him for months, and this simply makes it official.
Why the Webber era mattered
It is easy to forget how much Webber shaped the early pages of Piastri’s story. The Australian was a junior with Renault, then a reserve without a seat, and it was the Webbers’ negotiation with McLaren that gave him a debut in 2023. That is a decisive piece of work for any manager, and it is why the tone of the statement was warm rather than frosty. Both sides spoke of pride and thanks, and neither hinted at a dispute.
Timing and the Sao Paulo backdrop
The timing sits against a tough weekend. Piastri finished sixth in Brazil as he struggled to match Norris for pace, though he did get the better of Liam Lawson. He also could not keep the recovering Max Verstappen at bay. Norris won in the rain, and Mercedes sealed the constructors’ title. Our Sao Paulo Grand Prix race report has the full picture, and our Sao Paulo preview shows how the weekend was set up.
Piastri is seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. A fresh management team will want to help him rebuild momentum quickly.
What the Piastri management change means
For a driver who is only 25, this is a natural career step. Management shapes contracts, commercial deals and long-term planning, and the statement made no mention of any change at McLaren, and no new representative has been named yet.
The challenge for Piastri is straightforward: put 2026 behind him and come back strong. The season is nearly done, and that quiet winter window is the natural time to appoint new representatives, review commercial commitments and plan for 2027. Piastri has already shown he trusts a tight inner circle, so expect the next appointment to be a measured one rather than a headline-grabbing signing. For more F1 and other sports coverage, visit our Sports section.
