Webber: Piastri has no need to apologise for high bar

Mark Webber believes Oscar Piastri should not have to make any excuses for the “extremely high bar” he has set himself.

With a McLaren team that is attempting to find its way out of its early-season malaise, Piastri is still trying to find his feet in F1.

After seven grands prix – close to a third of this year’s 22-race calendar – points have been hard to come by for Piastri who has finished eighth in his home race in Australia and 10th around the streets of Monaco.

With a five-point haul, Piastri only finds himself just seven points and two places behind more established team-mate Lando Norris.

The 22-year-old has so far hugely impressed both McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella, with the former only recently suggesting Piastri to be a future world champion.

As part of his make-up, Piastri has proven to be extremely critical of himself for making even the smallest of mistakes, as was the case in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, as an error denied him the possibility of joining third-on-the-grid Norris close to the front.

Suggested to manager Webber that Piastri appeared to be a driver who readily chastised himself, speaking to Speedcafe, the nine-time F1 race winner said: “You will never hear Oscar make excuses.

“He sets an extremely high bar for himself, he’s very proud of his own standards, which have played a significant contribution to how much success he’s had up to this point in his career.

“So he’s not going to apologise for the bar he wants to set himself. We all know he’s going to establish himself here very quickly, and he is already doing so.

“People in the know who are watching are commenting that what they’re seeing is very, very unique.

“That’s the most important thing in this industry, that the right people in the know are loving what they’re seeing.”

According to Webber, the former F2 and F3 champion is needing to grow up fast in F1 and learn quickly given how times have changed from even his racing days when there was ample testing time.

Piastri, like many rookies of today’s generation, has been thrown into the deep end this season and has been forced to swiftly learn how to swim.

Offering an assessment of Piastri’s season so far, Webber added: “He’s doing very, very well.

“For rookies these days in F1 it’s very, very challenging, given the mileage they do compared to what we used to be able to do.

“And, of course, it’s never been tighter off the back of the top two (teams). It’s such a big juggling act, so that’s another interesting dynamic, that some of the learnings can be magnified because of just how tight the field is.

“But he’s taking it all in his stride. McLaren is absolutely very, very happy with his progress, and Lando has been awesome. They’re getting on brilliantly.

“And it’s just really awesome that he leaves these venues with just an absolutely huge amount of information.”