A massive change has been made to Oscar Piastri‘s innermost circle ahead of the 2026 F1 season.
Mark Webber, who alongside wife Ann Neal has managed Piastri throughout his career, has stepped back from his hands-on trackside role with the young Aussie.
But Piastri won’t be without expertise – he has brought in Pedro Matos, who was his race engineer for his F2 title-winning season in 2021, in what is basically a straight swap.
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Webber has balanced his trackside role with Piastri with semi-regular punditry with Channel 4 in the UK.
He also has several other commercial interests within the paddock.
Mark Webber has taken a step back from his trackside role with Oscar Piastri. LAT Images
PlanetF1 reports Webber will focus solely on Piastri’s commercial and contractual matters in 2026.
Piastri will be hoping Matos’ addition will give him a boost as he heads into his fourth full F1 season.
He won seven grands prix last year, and led the championship by 34 points after the Dutch Grand Prix, before a horror dip in form saw him crash three times and finish on the podium just three times in the final nine races.
He finished third in the championship, 13 points behind his victorious teammate.
The F1 circus is currently in Bahrain for pre-season testing. Piastri was at the wheel of his new McLaren on Wednesday night, before handing the car over to teammate Lando Norris for Thursday.
Oscar Piastri at the wheel of the new McLaren on Wednesday. NurPhoto via Getty Images
He will be the solo pilot on board on Friday night.
“It all ran smoothly and I feel like I got a better handle of what the car’s doing and what it needs,” he said on Wednesday.
“The conditions are very different here compared to Barcelona, so it was good to get some running in a different environment.
“We’ll go through the data, see what we can pull out from it and how we can improve ahead of getting back on track.”
Piastri will start his 2026 campaign at the Australian Grand Prix in his hometown of Melbourne on March 8.