Webber impressed by Piastri’s racecraft

In brief

Webber impressed by Piastri’s racecraft

Former F1 driver and multiple grand prix winner Mark Webber says McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who he helps to manage, races “hard and clean” against his rivals at the front of the F1 field.

“Oscar, through his junior categories, has been exceptional,” Webber told the Formula For Success podcast.

“His entry into F1 with a 15-month break, he didn’t bloody race for a long time, which was tough for any racing driver and that’s what you’ve got to be doing whether you’re an orthopaedic surgeon, whether you’re a racing driver with your age, you’ve got to continue to practice your trade. And Oscar had that gap. So I think last year, entering Formula 1 for him, of course it was a big step. We know that from the junior categories.

“But time and time again, he’s shown that he’s ready to race at the front against the big guys. And he’s fine for that: Respectful, hard, clean. And we saw again that at the weekend with turn four at Monza – to get through there and be absolutely brilliant on the brakes and get the move done as well as he did was another feather in his cap.”

Wolff expects early development switch to 2026

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says that he expects most teams to switch their development focus over to 2026 very early on next season.

“The rules permit to develop the ‘26 car only from January onwards, which I think is a good thing that we decided back in the day because it’s going to be the same starting point for everyone,” Wolff said.

“So I guess that most of the teams are going to choose a pretty early point of transitioning most of the resource into the new 2026 car. But we’re talking about a couple of months up and down. I think everything is going to fall into place in the first few races and I’m not sure we’re going to see lots of upgrades after the summer.”

Dixon happy with oval finale

Scott Dixon says he sees it as a good thing for IndyCar that the championship is ending with an oval race at the Nashville Superspeedway this weekend.

“I think all of us want this to go extremely well, whether it’s just a couple years or whether it’s going to become the primary situation,” Dixon said. “Everybody loves the Nashville downtown street race. The race itself was interesting, I thought. It would have been a great spot…