Oscar Piastri addresses 'different' Mark Webber role after shake-up

Oscar Piastri has claimed there was "nothing specific that triggered" the decision for manager Mark Webber to travel less with him over the 2026 F1 season.

The former F1 driver will not be trackside with the McLaren driver as much this campaign, with Pedro Matos, who was Piastri's race engineer in Formula 2, expected to take on that role.

The performance consultant was the nine-time grand prix winner's race engineer at Prema in 2021, when the Australian driver won the F2 championship.

However, Piastri has moved to play down the change to his inner circle at race weekends.

Despite Webber going from being trackside with his driver at every round to what is anticipated to be a selective and reduced schedule, it is not being framed as the former Red Bull driver stepping back.

Having managed the 24-year-old through much of his early career, Webber has long provided support from within the paddock, but Piastri insists the elder Australian will still be "very much involved" across the season ahead.

"There wasn't anything specific," the McLaren driver told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about the change in personnel during F1 testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

"Just, we made a decision for things to look a bit different.

"Mark is still very much involved, and I've been in contact with him a lot over the last few weeks."

Webber was a prominent figure in the paddock last year as Piastri mounted his first F1 drivers' championship challenge.

Although he held a sizeable advantage over Lando Norris with just nine rounds to go, his team-mate whittled down the 34-point gap and eventually took the title by 13 points.

That sudden turnaround in fortunes and the shifting sands of performance between the pair led to intense scrutiny over how McLaren manages its two drivers.

The well-covered flashpoints in Monza and Singapore catalysed allegations of favouritism towards Norris, and are believed to have raised tensions between Webber and the Woking-based team.

However, Piastri was careful not to provide any indication as to whether that supposedly fraught relationship instigated the change.

"He just won't be trackside as much anymore," he said.

"So that's really the extent of it; there's nothing specific that triggered it."