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"Not since Hamilton": Webber's huge prediction for Piastri
SEN • November 20th, 2025 11:18 am
Former F1 driver Mark Webber has made an astonishing comparison between his client Oscar Piastri and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Since becoming a mentor and manager for Piastri in 2020, Webber has seldom spoken publicly about the 24-year-old McLaren driver, who is currently second in the standings and in contention for a maiden F1 title in only his third full season in the sport.
Piastri is 24 points adrift of teammate Lando Norris with four-time champion Max Verstappen sitting third with three races and a sprint to go.
The two McLarens being so close to one another in the standings with no elected No 1 driver reminds Webber of a similar scenario back in 2007 when Fernando Alonso and a then rookie Hamilton were almost level in the title race.
Back then one Kimi Räikkönen was creeping up the pair before eventually being crowned world champion after a series of devastating crashes in the final three races for McLaren.
Raikkonen won the title on 110 points with the McLaren drivers both on 109.
“It’s a journey for him, obviously an incredible journey, so early in his career,” Webber told UK TV Channel 4.
“To fight for a world title year three is pretty unprecedented. I think it was Lewis. There hasn’t been many people that have done this so early in his career.
“So naturally, that’s in the equation, of course, to understand the boundaries of how that can look for him, without putting too much pressure on the situation.
“But to see him so young, year three, fighting for a world title quite quickly, it’s pretty surreal and bizarre. But nice to be involved in, because a lot of drivers don’t fight for a title once in their career.”
Until recently, Piastri had been leading the title race.
Seven wins in the first half of the season had him more than 100 pints clear of Verstappen back in August but, having failed to make the podium since Monza in early September together with a series of crashes, Piastri’s season has been on a downward trend of late.
Mathematically he can still win the title, but for Webber the focus has to be on ensuring Piastri’s mind is right.
“A bit of everything, arm around him, a bit of encouragement here and there, opportunities,” he continued. “You can see his pecker is up. He’s still working hard, and it’s early in his career.”
__F1 returns this weekend at the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the race starting at 3pm AEDT Sunday.
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