Is Webber a real advantage or more of a liability for Piastri now?

Motorsport veteran, Indy 500 and F1 winner, Montoya believes the first-corner clash at Austin exposed signs that Piastri is becoming uncomfortable under pressure as the 2025 F1 world championship leader. What's Mark Webber doing about it?

Interviewed ahead of this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, Montoya told Escapist Magazine: “They’re going for a world championship! Lando didn’t hit him on purpose and Oscar, in my opinion, made a mistake. He came out of turn one and he strolled around into turn two and then when he saw Lando, he gassed it, but it was too late.

"They come out of the corner and Lando accelerates and Oscar, when he sees it, goes straight. He goes to pin Lando but it’s too late and then Oscar dive bombs into the corner thinking, ‘I’m just going to drive around him,’ and Lando went at the same pace and matched them.”

Montoya argued that contact between teammates is inevitable when the stakes are this high, but that perspective needs to prevail. “It was the first corner of the race. What are you expecting? Yes, you want to make it as clean as possible as teammates, but you’re going for a world championship. And we’re seeing a side of Oscar that is starting to show he’s getting uncomfortable.”

Montoya pointed to the influence of Piastri’s manager, former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, as a potential factor that could inflame tensions within the McLaren camp.

“What is very interesting in all this is you have got to remember who manages Oscar. It is Mark Webber. And Mark had a lot of issues being seen as a number two at Red Bull behind Sebastian Vettel. Webber thought Red Bull favoured Vettel. Oscar thinks McLaren favour Lando,” Montoya explained.

“I think Mark needs to be very careful not to stir the pot on behalf of Oscar. The points between them are getting smaller. The last thing they need is for Oscar to be told not to take any sh*t from Lando and so they come together and Oscar DNFs and Lando wins the race. Then you’re in a hole.”

He credited Piastri’s performance at Singapore as a statement of intent but said McLaren were right not to interfere in Austin "Oscar did a really good job all weekend, outpacing Land,o and that was really surprising. McLaren saw that they were just racing each other. But was it enough to give the position back? No, it was first corner racing. Under Papaya rules, if you give the position back to that, it’s worse than staying still.”

Montoya said McLaren should keep their racing rules simple to avoid team orders interfering in a genuine title fight: “I think the rules of engagement need to change a little, and I think the only rule has to be, just don’t take each other out. Otherwise, fight it out to the death.

"The only thing they need to be careful about is if they take each other out, that opens things up for Max. Don’t take each other out has to be the only rule. Other than that, go and race as hard as you want. But if somebody takes the other out, then we’re going to step in and you’re not going to like the way we’re going to step in.”

Montoya, a former Williams and McLaren driver, also suggested that whispers about Piastri’s camp looking elsewhere for 2026 opportunities could backfire: “There’s rumours going around already that the management is looking for other opportunities for Oscar."

The 50-year-old Colombian continued: "I don’t know how strong a rumour it is, but the only thing this does is weaken your position at McLaren. Because if that’s the case, then McLaren will simply go, ‘Ok, we’ll just put all eggs on Lando. He’s committed to us.’

“You’re putting pressure on Oscar when you don’t have. Oscar is not Max Verstappen. It might be the case 10 years from now, you look back and go, ‘Oh my God, Oscar is the guy.’ But today Oscar is not the guy. Yes, he’s leading the world championship and he’s doing an amazing job, but Oscar is not a Max or a Lewis yet. And I don’t think people see him as one yet.”

Montoya concluded by advising Webber to avoid projecting his own past frustrations onto his driver’s present situation: “I don’t know if it’s going on, but if you look at it, it’s just like a sense of déjà vu of what happened to him with Vettel. And I think he needs to keep his previous experiences at home.”

The McLaren rivalry resumes at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend, where both Piastri and Norris will look to bounce back from their Austin clash as Verstappen hunts another win to keep his late-season title charge alive.