F1 presenter shares very smug Mark Webber comment after Oscar Piastri’s Baku win

Follow us on Google Discover

McLaren star Oscar Piastri may be rueing his slow start to the season with seven race weekends to go.

That’s not entirely the Australian driver’s fault, with McLaren starting the 2024 campaign with the fourth-fastest car on the grid behind Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Lando Norris now believes McLaren are a long way ahead of Mercedes but the 20-point lead they’ve now got in the Constructors’ Championship suggests that every manufacturer knows the Woking-based outfit are the team to beat.

Norris did a fantastic job to recover to 4^th at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but it was Oscar Piastri who stole the show.

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

After his crash in FP1, Charles Leclerc only made one more tiny error across the weekend but that was all the 23-year-old needed to take the lead of the race and win his second Grand Prix.

Mark Webber acts as Piastri’s manager and advisor and during the F1 Post-Race Show, host Laura Winter shared a short anecdote about his behaviour after the chequered flag flew.

Mark Webber makes smug Oscar Piastri comment after his win at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Piastri has had to deal with a lot of talk since Monza about his role as Norris’s teammate and McLaren’s second driver to help the Brit challenge Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.

McLaren won’t ask Piastri to give away any victories but in Baku, Norris’s Q1 exit meant Piastri was able to drive for himself without worrying about the consequences.

In fact, it was Norris who played the supporting role as his defensive driving delayed Sergio Perez and allowed Piastri to change his tyres without worrying about being undercut by the Mexican.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

Reflecting on the race in the paddock, Winter said: “OK, let’s talk about it Oscar Piastri, because I am in awe.

“And do you know what? Just before we came on air, in the pre-race show I asked Mark Webber, Oscar has made a point of working and it’s been a focus for him on tyre management, and he said, ‘Well, he’s got the most points of all the drivers in last 10 races so I think his tyre management is just fine thanks.’

“And I thought, that’s Mark being a very good manager and then he’s just come over and said, ‘What was that about his tyre management?’

“He did take the moment and I fully accept Mark Webber that Oscar Piastri has more than worked on that tyre management.”

Mark Webber had small criticism of McLaren after Oscar Piastri’s victory in Baku

Aside from Norris’s unexpected exit from qualifying, very little went wrong for Andrea Stella’s team in Azerbaijan.

The teammate the pair showed was very encouraging and potentially highlighted how Webber is defending Piastri behind the scenes at McLaren.

However, McLaren have left themselves vulnerable at times when they don’t necessarily need to, especially when it comes to pit stops.

Webber admitted he thought McLaren didn’t nail the timing of Piastri’s pit stop and shouldn’t have necessarily needed Norris to slightly compromise his race to protect him.

McLaren won’t worry too much about that after taking a convincing lead in the Constructors’ Championship.

The next task is to protect it and see if they can find a way to stop Verstappen from winning his fourth straight title.