Mark Webber says 22-year-old driver achieved something beyond his ‘wildest dreams’ in 2023

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Former Formula 1 star Mark Webber has admitted that he was blown away by how well Oscar Piastri drove during the 2023 season.

The 22-year-old had a phenomenal rookie campaign with McLaren where he secured his first Sprint Race win.

Speaking to Autosport, Webber was talking about his fellow countryman’s start to life in F1.

There was an awful lot of excitement surrounding Oscar Piastri when he took to the track for the first time at the start of last year.

For McLaren to make the move to poach him from under Alpine’s noses before he’d driven in a Grand Prix highlighted how good Zak Brown thought he was going to be.

Although the car performed poorly to begin with, once Piastri and Lando Norris were given the necessary upgrades, they starred in the second half of the season.

Back-to-back podiums in Japan and Qatar highlighted just how good the young driver is going to be.

Mark Webber has now suggested that he never expected Piastri to produce the level of results he did in 2023.

He’s already arguably a level above some more experienced drivers on the grid.

With a year of experience under his belt, he’ll be hoping to close the gap even further on his teammate and McLaren’s closest rivals.

Webber raves about Piastri’s debut 2023 F1 season

Asked about how he thought the 22-year-old fared last year, Webber said: “Overall, of course, I’m very, very, very proud, very happy.

“I don’t think in our wildest dreams we could have expected to start with a season like that. But having hung out with the best in the world he knows there’s work to do.

“It’s never good for a racing driver not to race, with 15 months out. He did a bit of testing, but there’s no substitute for racing.

“He was certainly behind the eight ball a lot for the first six months, I think, even though he doesn’t want to use that as an excuse because Oscar doesn’t make excuses.

“Obviously, at this level it’s not a bonus when you haven’t seen the lights for 15 or so months, pitstops and all that sort of stuff, safety cars, it’s just racing, which is what it’s about.

“So that was a bit of a shock, just how much the gap hurt. But he took it in his stride. And the team obviously were struggling at the start as well.

“And then the third race was the home race. There was a lot to consider early doors psychologically for him, which he handled very, very well.”

Webber will hope that Piastri can take everything he’s learned in 2023 and use it to produce some even better results this season.

Alex Albon called his debut campaign ‘fantastic’, while there’s even been a suggestion that Ferrari should try and buy him out of his contract.

Ralf Schumacher has suggested that Piastri ‘never makes a mistake’ while Jarno Trulli believes he could end up being the biggest surprise of 2024.