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Oscar Piastri has expressed his delight at having Mark Webber ‘in his corner’ following what he has described as a “whirlwind” start to his F1 career.
Since taking on the role of manager to Piastri more than three years ago, Webber was instrumental in the controversial contract dispute last year that resulted in his charge’s move from Alpine to McLaren.
Following a difficult start to the season for McLaren as a whole this year, Piastri has risen to the challenge and come to the fore with impressive drives, notably since upgrades were delivered on the MCL60 in the races just before the recent summer break.
Speaking on the UK’s Virgin Radio, Piastri highlighted the influence nine-time F1 grand prix winner Webber has had on his fledgling career to date.
“He’s good,” said Piastri. “The first few years we worked together he did a lot behind the scenes for me – he still does a lot behind the scenes for me now.
“Obviously he’s got a wealth of F1 experience, racing experience, and now that I’m in F1 myself, he’s got heaps of ideas and questions.
“At this stage of my career, there’s stuff I’ve not even thought of that he’s asking me, so he’s very, very good behind the scenes, and good at helping me on the track when he can.
“Definitely happy he’s in my corner.”
The recent improvements to the car saw Piastri finish fourth in the British Grand Prix and then fifth in Hungary.
In the final race before the summer break in Belgium, the 22-year-old Melburnian qualified and finished second in the sprint event ahead of the grand prix in which he unfortunately retired on the first lap after an opening-corner incident with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Despite that result, Piastri is enjoying life at McLaren now he has a car with which to challenge.
“For me, being my first year, it’s been a whirlwind, a busy first half of the season, so the summer break was a nice little time to reflect,” added Piastri.
“We’re doing what we love, what we wanted to do since we were a little kid.
“At the same time we spend pretty much half of our year at a race track, and you’ve got to make sure you’re having fun, otherwise you’re spending six months of every year wondering what you’re doing.
“(Right now I’m) Loving it, especially as we’re now fighting further at the front as well. It’s a bit more fun when there are some trophies waiting at the end when you get it right.
“We’ve still a few things we want to work on (with the car) but we have a much better baseline for where we want to go in the future now.
“Hopefully we can continue to go forward, fight for some more trophies and have a good second half of the year.”
