Mark Webber reacts to ‘strange’ Oscar Piastri decision during Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying

McLaren know that they’re on the cusp of achieving something sensational at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Zak Brown and Andrea Stella could be about to oversee McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship victory since 1998.

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were McLaren’s drivers that year and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are now trying to emulate their success.

It’s not quite the same situation as Hakkinen went on to win his first Drivers’ Championship that year, and while Norris was Max Verstappen’s closest rival for much of the season, he could never get close enough to truly threaten the Dutchman.

Hopes will be high for 2025, but before then McLaren’s two young drivers have to deal with the pressure of maintaining their 21-point lead over Ferrari going into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

It didn’t look like pressure was an issue for either driver as they secured McLaren’s third front row lock-out this season.

However, Ted Kravitz was speaking on Ted’s Notebook and noticed something peculiar about Piastri’s session.

He bumped into Piastri’s manager Mark Webber who admitted it was ‘strange’ that Piastri had a lap reinstated for track limits when that would have come in handy earlier in the year.

Mark Webber admits Oscar Piastri’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix included one ‘strange’ moment

Reflecting on Piastri’s performance in qualifying and the similarities to the Austrian Grand Prix this season, Kravitz said: “Do you remember back in the Austrian Grand Prix, [Piastri] had a lap deleted in qualifying which I think would have either put him on pole position or on the second row?

“When Lando and Max got together, then it would have been Oscar who would have won the Austrian Grand Prix, not George Russell?

“And so [Andrea] Stella and I think quite a few other people within McLaren feel that had this let’s do the VAR on the deleted laps again been available at the Austrian Grand Prix like it was seemingly today and the stewards or whoever it is deleting laps and then reinstating them was able to do that in Austria, then we might have had a very different winner at the Austrian Grand Prix.”

READ MORE: McLaren driver Oscar Piastri’s life outside F1 from height to girlfriend

Later when Kravitz was outside McLaren’s motorhome, he spotted Piastri’s manager Mark Webber and asked him: “Do you remember Austria Mark, when Oscar got his lap deleted for track limits and where was the person who undeletes laps that today that didn’t in Austria and what is this VAR gone mad it seems, where we’re suddenly giving people back their laps having deleted them?”

Webber simply replied, “Strange, strange.” before walking back into the McLaren base in the Abu Dhabi paddock.

What happened to Oscar Piastri in qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix?

The reason Piastri, Webber and McLaren were so annoyed in McLaren was because of how tight one track limits call was on the young Australian.

The Red Bull Ring is notorious for track limits violations, with more than 1000 noted during the 2023 race.

Piastri was rapid in Austria and looked like he had a brilliant chance of clinching pole from Verstappen.

However, he lost his final run due to going fractionally wide and labelled the decision ‘embarrassing’ in his post-race interview.

Piastri and Webber weren’t happy in the McLaren garage and Saturday’s decision will only fuel more frustration between the pair.

McLaren’s papaya rules could get one final outing this season

Earlier in the season when it looked like Norris could potentially take advantage of Verstappen’s woes at Red Bull, McLaren decided to impart team orders on their drivers.

Piastri and Norris were subject to ‘papaya rules’ whch allowed both drivers to race but not to compromise the team’s results.

READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

This backfired when Piastri got the jump on Norris on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix, ultimately allowing Charles Leclerc to win the race.

Brown has shared his instructions to Norris and Piastri before the final race in Abu Dhabi.

If they can get a clean start and keep Carlos Sainz behind them on the opening laps, they might have plenty of reasons to celebrate after Sunday’s race.