Mark Webber is trying to get McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo with Aussie young gun Oscar Piastri

F1 legend Mark Webber could act as the executioner on Daniel Ricciardo’s career with the driver-turned-agent reportedly plotting to have rising star Oscar Piastri replace the Aussie at McLaren.

Ricciardo’s woes at McLaren have been well documented. While he managed his third top 10 finish of the season by coming in ninth at the Austrian Grand Prix overnight, he will need significant improvement over the back half of the season to hold his place.

Meanwhile, boom Australian rookie Piastri has been forced to bide his time after failing to get an F1 ride in 2022. 

He is currently a reserve driver for the Alpine F1 Team but won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

While he has been heavily linked to Williams for 2023, leading F1 reporter Ted Kravitz has suggested that Webber could be working to have Piastri replace Ricciardo at McLaren instead.

‘There are lots of rumours around as to why … Oscar Piastri, the Alpine reserve, has not signed for Williams,’ he said in the post-race wrap up of the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

‘Could the delay be that he and his manager Mark Webber are looking at potentially replacing Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren?

‘As every race goes by and points and performance fail to really come in for Daniel Ricciardo, maybe it looks more like, actually, McLaren will come in with a late offer for Oscar Piastri and nick him from under Williams’ nose and offer him Daniel Ricciardo’s seat for 2023.’ 

Webber, Piastri and Webber’s wife Ann Neal. The former Aussie champ is now managing the boom Australian rookie and looking to get him a team for the 2023 championship

‘Obviously, that would leave Daniel Ricciardo maybe going to drive for McLaren somewhere else [in one of their other racing series] or doing something else altogether. 

‘But, yeah good luck to Danny Ric as he continues to, well as someone once said, drive to survive in Formula 1.’

Ricciardo’s drive with McLaren seemed to be in jeopardy early this season after McLaren owner Zak Brown piled pressure on the former Red Bull and Renault star.

Piastri is rapidly running out of space for his trophies after claiming victory in the Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in successive years

However, Brown told News Corp the manufacturer remained committed to Ricciardo before last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

‘It was just an honest answer, it wasn’t meant to be critical,’ he said. 

‘It doesn’t mean we don’t think he can win us more races, it doesn’t mean we’re not trying unbelievably hard — quite the opposite; I know he can win us more races, we’re trying unbelievably hard.

‘But given his resume and how Lando (McLaren teammate Lando Norris) is going, do we expect him to be right next to Lando, whether that’s right in front or right behind? Yeah, and so does he.

‘And we’re going to get there. We’re totally committed to it.’

Ricciardo showed improvement at the Austrian Grand Prix, but will need a lot more to hold onto his place at McLaren in 2023 

While the result in Austria was an improvement for Ricciardo, he wasn’t doing cartwheels over the ‘decent’ finish and said there was plenty of work to do on the vehicle. 

‘It was OK,’ he said after the race. ‘I’m obviously happy to have moved forward and got a couple points out of it.

‘But yeah, I would have loved a bit more pace.

‘There were certainly some areas where I felt better yesterday. I didn’t quite have at all times what I wanted in the car today, particularly the first stint.

‘I locked up at the start and got a very big flat spot on the first stint and I struggled a lot through all the right-hand corners.

‘That was quite a shame because I think we had good track position — I think I made up one or two spots on the first lap. That was good but then didn’t have the pace.

‘With newer tyres, it was a little bit better but it still wasn’t everything I hoped for. All that being said, it was a decent race. It was solid but just decent.’