David Coulthard believes Mark Webber’s decision to reduce his trackside presence with Oscar Piastri ahead of the 2026 season represents a natural evolution after guiding the Australian through his first Formula 1 title fight, according to Motorsport.com.
Piastri announced changes to his management structure before the current season. Webber remains his manager but stepped back from trackside duties to focus on commercial matters, with his wife Ann Webber also involved in the revised setup.
From Alpine Dispute to Title Contention
Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast, Coulthard traced Webber’s involvement from securing Piastri’s McLaren seat through the 2023 contract dispute with Alpine to supporting him through last season’s drivers’ championship battle.
“Well I’m not a fly on the wall, but what it feels like is that Mark and his wife Ann went all in to not only get Oscar on the Formula 1 grid, but to get him on the Formula 1 grid not with Alpine, which is where allegedly a contract could have sat,” Coulthard said. “So they got him into McLaren, helped him through the initial phase of becoming a grand prix driver and then got in the ring with him through what was a pretty public conversation as to whether McLaren’s approach decided on by the CEO, by the board, by the team principal was the right approach to allow us to see racing.”
McLaren allowed Piastri and Lando Norris to fight freely for the 2025 drivers’ championship under the team’s ‘papaya rules,’ which prohibited contact between the two cars. Norris won the title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Piastri finishing third behind Max Verstappen.
Team Orders and Driver Independence
Coulthard, who experienced team orders during his own career, said McLaren’s approach balanced team and driver interests during the title fight.
“That’s what it comes down to,” he said. “None of us like to see one driver being told to move over. They have the right, as they did, to do exactly what they’re doing.”
“Team orders when I started in Formula 1 were not allowed, although they happened. At a certain point, the FIA changed that to allow teams to make team instructions for the benefit of the team. So, they didn’t do anything other than the very best for McLaren,” Coulthard explained.
He added: “But as fans of the sport, and maybe me having lived through having to move over a couple of times for team-mates, didn’t want to see too much of it. But I think that having gone in the ring, or to use a Mark Webber expression, been in the trenches with Oscar through what was his first crack at a world title, I think there’s an inevitable wanting to step back and let him get on with it because at the end of the day, no one can be in the car with the driver.”
Natural Progression After Title Fight
Coulthard compared Webber’s situation to other driver-manager relationships involving former world champions, citing Keke Rosberg’s work with Mika Hakkinen as an example where the driver ultimately operates independently on track.
“No manager, whether it was Keke Rosberg with Mika Hakkinen, a former world champion who was in the ring with Mika, or any other named manager, the driver still has to get out there and do their own thing,” he said.
“So, I don’t think Mark retired from frontline racing to suddenly be going to 24 grands prix, not holding the hand of Oscar, but guiding him through the good and the bad. So I think it’s just a natural development into this new setup that he has where Mark and Ann are still involved.”
Piastri enters his fourth F1 season with McLaren as one of the grid’s established front-runners. The team begins defense of its constructors’ championship at the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14, 2026.