Guenther Steiner suggests Mark Webber became too involved in Oscar Piastri’s career
Former Haas Formula 1 team principal Guenther Steiner believes Mark Webber may have become too involved in Oscar Piastri’s career in the second half of 2025, before the McLaren driver decided he wanted to “do this on my own”.
Piastri and Webber announced after the São Paulo Grand Prix that they had mutually agreed to end their management agreement, which began in 2019 and saw the Australian rise through Formula 3 and Formula 2 to a McLaren race seat.
Webber had already scaled back his role this year and stopped attending races alongside Piastri.
Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner said the news did not come as a shock.
“I’m actually not too surprised because, as you said, Mark was not around. I’ve seen Mark this year maybe once or twice, not more,” Steiner said. “He was not around. And obviously, he said at the beginning of the year that he would not be beside Oscar anymore as he was in the good old days.”
Steiner then pointed to the latter part of 2025, when Piastri’s title challenge against his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris faded, as the moment the relationship began to change.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
“The second half of the season last year, when Oscar, after he didn’t win the world championship, maybe Mark got a little bit involved too much. And then at some stage, Oscar said, ‘OK, I’m now more experienced. I want to do this on my own.’”
Steiner suggested that stepping back did not come naturally to Webber.
“In the beginning, you say, ‘Hey, let’s be less around.’ But Mark is not the guy who is like, ‘OK, I’m just sitting on the sidewalk seeing how we are not performing.’ And then, obviously, Oscar maybe wants to cut the ties with Mark, but he owes him a lot. Some of his success is owed to Mark Webber, in my opinion.”
With three rounds remaining in the 2026 season, Piastri currently sits seventh in the drivers’ championship with 152 points.
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