McLaren driver Oscar Piastri has officially split with Mark Webber and Ann Neal after a seven-year managerial relationship.

It was confirmed in a statement on Monday that Piastri and Webber had parted ways by mutual consent. The former Red Bull driver had already taken on a different role at the start of the year that focused on business rather than racing.

The official explanation is that both parties see this as the right moment to part ways, though the move has naturally created intrigue.

Did Mark Webber’s Red Bull experiences skew his view of Oscar Piastri?

It was reported earlier this year that McLaren were behind Piastri’s management reshuffle, which saw the Australian’s old Formula 2 engineer Pedro Matos effectively taking on Webber’s trackside role. This was apparently down to tensions that emerged during the 2025 season.

However, Motorsport.com report that McLaren ‘never formally asked’ Piastri to make such a change. Instead, he came to the decision himself ‘with some input from those around him’.

Motorsport add that he always wanted to prevent Piastri from being labelled ‘a number two driver in the F1 paddock’. He was particularly sensitive to this issue after his experiences alongside Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull.

Webber felt that Vettel was given preferential treatment during Red Bull’s first run of dominance between 2010 and 2013.

He famously said ‘not bad for a number two driver’ when he won the 2010 British Grand Prix, and he accused the team of protecting Vettel after he disobeyed the ‘Multi-21’ team order at the 2013 Malaysian GP.

When Webber watched McLaren swap their cars at Monza last year following Norris’ slow pit stop, it may have reopened those wounds.

This decision, perhaps the biggest controversy of the entire 2025 season, prompted external allegations of favouritism, which Piastri has always rejected.

He still led the F1 standings by 31 points after the Italian GP, but he ultimately lost out to Norris by 13.

The timing of Monday’s announcement may seem unusual with the off-season only weeks away, but RACER report that the split was agreed ‘a number of races ago’.