Ex-Formula 1 race winner Mark Webber believes Oscar Piastri needs to be given time before he can be expected to match Lando Norris at McLaren.
Piastri has sustained a solid start to his rookie F1 campaign, beating Norris in his only second-ever F1 weekend outing before scoring points in both Australia and Monaco.
Amid a tough year for McLaren, Norris has regularly had the upper hand over Piastri, though, and has outpaced his new team-mate at every round bar one.
However, Webber has been encouraged by how close Piastri, who endured a year on the sidelines in 2022, has got to what he believes to be one of the “top three drivers” on the grid in Norris this early into his F1 career.
Asked what Piastri requires to move to the next level in F1, Webber said via Speedcafe: “Just time.”
“We’re in Disneyland to say he’s going to go out there and naturally match one of the top three drivers in the world right now in Lando Norris.
“But it’s what he did in qualifying in Monaco, missing out by two hundredths [of a second], and he was close again in Barcelona.
“So time is going to be the best thing that he’s got, and that’s something we can’t buy obviously. He just needs more mileage, more laps and more circuits, all those things.
“It’s a brilliant trajectory he’s on, and obviously we’re all extremely proud so far of how he’s adapted.”
While Piastri admits he has been happy with his competitive form over a single lap in qualifying, the 22-year-old asserts that he must overcome a perceived weakness of starting race weekends too sluggishly.
“In qualifying, I’ve sort of been there or thereabouts for a while now,” he assessed.
“In practice [in Spain], I wasn’t super happy. In FP3 I think I made a good step and was happy from the start of quali again.
“So there seems to be a bit of a similar trend in that I’m getting better through the weekend, which is nice when it happens.
“But I still want to be able to get on to the pace a little bit earlier in the weekend, which is still something I’m focusing on.
“When we take the fuel out of the car the grip comes up, which just makes everything a little bit easier as well, being more comfortable. But I also want to start driving a bit better earlier in the weekend, too.”
Although McLaren appeared to take a step forward with the sizeable upgrade package it introduced in May, the Woking squad’s race day struggles were exposed again in Spain.
Both MCL60 cars made it into the top 10 in qualifying, with Norris executing a stellar final run in Q3 to secure a third-place starting berth for Sunday’s race.
However, McLaren would depart Barcelona empty-handed. Despite Norris’ hopes being dashed following first-lap contact with Lewis Hamilton, Piastri’s failure to hold onto a place in the points even with a clean race showcased the team’s shortcomings.
The British outfit is expecting its new simulator to come online this season, while the turn of the year will see the arrival of David Sanchez and Rob Marshall from Ferrari and Red Bull respectively to complete McLaren’s technical restructuring.
