Oscar Piastri challenged to find title ‘character’ in Webber ‘tough run’ verdict

Mark Webber challenged Oscar Piastri to “find that character” required to mount a World Championship fightback against Lando Norris.

Piastri fell 24 points behind his McLaren teammate after crashing out of the Sprint at Interlagos on Saturday, before a 10-second penalty in the race saw him need to mount a comeback to fifth place, with Norris winning both events in Brazil.

Mark Webber: Oscar Piastri not ‘low on motivation’ despite ‘tough run’

Having led the standings for much of the season, Norris has managed to more-than-double Piastri’s points total in the last six races, the Briton out-scoring the Australian by 115 points to 57 since Norris retired at the Dutch Grand Prix.

The tide has turned on track in Norris’ favour courtesy of a string of victories and podiums, while Piastri is now without a podium finish in the last five races.

Former Red Bull driver Webber, now Piastri‘s manager, assured that behind the scenes, his client has all the motivation required to get back into the fight with Norris.

With the young Australian now having gathered Formula 1 experience, though, Webber explained it is on the driver himself to ultimately extract the most he can from every race weekend.

“Well, get him turned around,” Webber told Channel 4 when asked how he will work with Piastri after this latest result.

“I don’t think he’s low on motivation, put it that way. He’s had a tough run, but this is about character, about finding those deep motivations that you need at this point to come back.

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“You know, this is his third year in F1, so he’s got to find that character to come back.”

While following Norris in second place at Interlagos, news came through that Piastri had been handed a 10-second penalty for his role in a restart collision, when he tagged Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who in turn slid into the helpless Charles Leclerc, who was forced to retire from the race.

Piastri protested his innocence both during and after the race, but Webber acknowledged that, given how closely congested the pack is at the moment, any time penalty would have a significant impact.

“It looked like a first-lap incident, right?” Webber said when asked if Piastri’s penalty was harsh.

“Normally [the stewards] give a bit more room for a first lap, because there was a restart.

“He got a good restart, Kimi had a bit more room to his right so he was the meat in the sandwich, could have maybe co-operated a little bit more.

“Ten seconds, obviously, with this field, that’s just so hard to get back, so Oscar lost a lot of points with that penalty.”

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