Webber: Piastri is becoming more and more experienced racer

Mark Webber earned his first points in Formula 1 in Australia in 2002 with a weak Minardi, and now he continues the career of Oscar Piastri, who also does not drive the most competitive car, but it was in Melbourne that he opened the scoring for points won.

“Oscar had a good race, although there are always big risks at Albert Park circuit, and everyone saw it again,” said the former driver, who took part in the F1 Nation podcast. – The McLaren team performed well, although we have to admit they were lucky this time – after two failed races at the start of the season. But today the gods of motorsport were on her side.

Both riders scored points and Oscar played well all weekend, so I have no doubt he will sleep well on board on his way to Europe.

At one time he became the vice-champion of British Formula 4. In Formula 3, he played for the Italian Prema team and won the championship with it, although it cannot be said that it was such a confident victory, since he had constant fighting by car.

But then he switched to F2 and showed his best side there. In his debut season in this series, he achieved dominance. As far as I remember, he won the tests in Formula 1 at the end of last season and I saw him at those first tests. I then thought that this man would show it to everyone – and it happened.

It’s a shame Oscar missed last season, although a driver of his level should have kept racing, so in 2022 he was in a difficult position. But now that he has become a McLaren racer, he has a great partner, Lando Norris, from whom he can learn a lot, and together they try to ensure that their team shows better results in the future.

It is nice to see how he is becoming more and more experienced professional. Every day he understands something new, every day he gets better little by little, because to be successful in Formula 1 you need experience that no money can buy.

For example, during the race in Melbourne there were red flags and all these restarts, practices and qualifying were held in difficult weather conditions. All this allows you to gain experience that will come in handy for him next year.

It is clear that his affairs can and will develop in different ways, but you have to endure all this, and Oscar is distinguished by both excellent psychological preparation and the ability to quickly process the necessary information. I would be very happy if his collection of sports trophies soon becomes richer than mine.

McLaren is preparing extensive car upgrades for the stage in Baku, but the rivals are not standing still or dozing off either, and the stopwatch will tell who is faster. If I could predict whose innovations would be more effective, I’d be a rich man! But as you know, they don’t always work effectively, because some teams have already brought new components to Australia, but they have given little.