Formula 1: Nine-time F1 race winner Mark Webber hails Oscar Piastri win and welcomes talk of future title
Oscar Piastri is only 18 months into his career but proud manager and Australian racing great Mark Webber says the young star’s maiden victory was ‘due’ amid talk of the McLaren racer becoming a future world champion.
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Mark Webber has hailed the “ginormous moment” in Oscar Piastri’s Formula 1 career after his first Grand Prix victory, saying the young Aussie was “due” to stand on the top step of the podium and hopes it can be a launching pad to his goal of winning a world championship.
Piastri joined a select group of Australians, including Webber, as a Formula 1 Grand Prix winner after taking his maiden victory in the Hungarian GP in just his 35th start.
The victory was not without its drama with McLaren issuing team orders for Lando Norris to swap positions with Piastri after strategy allowed the Brit to undercut the Melburnian, who had gained the race lead at the start, in the final round of pit stops.
Piastri’s win came after four previous podiums and a sprint race victory last year in Qatar.
Exuding pride in the maiden Grand Prix victory, Piastri’s manager and mentor Webber said the 23-year-old had been building towards this moment and deserved the result.
“I’m extremely proud of Oscar,” Webber said.
“He absolutely deserves this victory as there have been one or two opportunities even before this one. So, even though he’s had this one relatively early in his career, it was due, and he drove brilliantly to capture his first Grand Prix win at a very technical and demanding circuit and that’s something we can all be very proud about.
“It’s a ginormous moment when you come through the junior categories with the immense success Oscar had and then convert that success into making your presence felt at the pinnacle of motorsport.
“With a win in your own right – of course he’s already won a sprint race – but to win on a Sunday is very special, no question about it.
“His peers know he’s here and that he’s here to win.”
Piastri arrived in F1 as one of the most anticipated rookies in years after a standout junior career when he won three consecutive junior championship crowns.
He was labelled a “future world champion” by McLaren boss Zak Brown after just a handful of races last year and underlined his potential in an eye-catching debut F1 season, named the FIA’s Rookie of the Year.
Piastri’s breakthrough Grand Prix win naturally adds to questions about whether he could eventually go a step further and become a future F1 world champion.
Webber, a nine-time Grand Prix winner for Red Bull, said winning a world championship was the ultimate goal for Piastri, but did not add weight to the discussion about how soon the McLaren star could be in the title mix – but welcomed the talk.
“Throughout Oscar’s career, everyone has set lofty goals for him so early because of his results,” Webber said.
“He never spoke about those expectations – it’s just something his CV generated by doing his talking on the track.
“So, it’s nice that people talk about him fighting for world championships in the future and of course, one day we hope he will win a world championship – that’s the goal.”
While Webber acknowledged it was a rare feat for a driver to win a Grand Prix in the first 18 months of their F1 career, he said Piastri had set the foundations for his breakthrough with his outstanding rookie season and could have achieved it earlier.
“It’s not often you say that a driver can win within an 18-month bracket of entering the sport, particularly with a year off which made the first part of last year a little bit more challenging for him,” Webber said.
“But that said, his rookie year and to have that level of performance that he had laid the foundations for a second season which in some ways can be the trickiest for any F1 driver as people expect them to have double the experience which is not always the case.
“So, for most drivers it’s a very lofty goal to be winning this early but for Oscar it wasn’t a lofty goal – it was something he could well have done even earlier and now he has.
“It’s always nice to finish a F1 race with no-one in front of you – that’s a very big moment. Coupled with that, he would have learned a lot from leading so many laps – being out there alone and putting all that into the computer for his future experiences.
“There are so many positives to take away from this special moment and there’s no doubt he’ll put that experience to good use in the future.”
Piastri joins Jack Brabham (14), Alan Jones (12), Webber (nine) and Daniel Ricciardo (eight) as F1 Grand Prix winners.
Webber said it was “brilliant” for Piastri to secure his spot in Australian motorsport history.
“He does join a select group of Australians,” Webber said.
“(Wife and manager) Ann has been fortunate to have worked with two of the five so that’s a pretty good percentage and I suppose I’ve worked with two of the five, too, having been one of those myself and now working with Oscar!
“It’s brilliant for Australia; you know geographically it’s a challenging country to have success at F1 level – to lay the foundations for a junior career and get the timing right, and to have the opportunity to show your skill and talent.
“All the five gentlemen in that group had that chance and opportunity to fly the flag for Australia and won. Considering that F1 has been going for 70-odd years, five winners shows how tough it is.”
Piastri paid tribute to the role Webber had played in his career after his win.
“His influence has been massive on so many levels,” Piastri said.
“Firstly it’s important to say from Mark and Ann it’s been important on so many levels. I think behind the scenes they’ve done an incredible amount of work for me in my career, whether it was my junior career, getting me into Formula 1, working with McLaren, it’s been a massive influence for me.
“There’s always little tips and things like that … the majority of it is about the bigger picture of things and Mark obviously had a long and successful career in Formula 1.
“I’ve said a few times, his hindsight of his career is my foresight. And he can keep me out of a few traps, a few holes that maybe he experienced in his career.
“His influence there is incredibly important …. and he’s been in a championship-winning team for a lot of his career and I think you know, not just for myself but for the whole team, that’s a key thing to have.”
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