Oscar Piastri’s management has denied reports that the Australian has activated his contract clause and left McLaren at the end of the season.
Rumors about a potential move between Red Bull and McLaren for Max Verstappen and Piastri circulated as early as October last year. But Brazilian motorsport website Grande Premio this week said the Melburnian had “signaled his desire” to leave the team and was closing in on a deal with Red Bull.
Oscar Piastri’s camp has denied rumors that he has “signaled his intention” to leave McLaren. AP Photo/Darko Bandic
The publication reported that Piastri was set to activate a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave the team at the end of the season if he was not among the top five drivers by the mid-season break within two races.
It is also widely believed that Verstappen has a clause that will allow him to leave Red Bull if he ends up outside the top two by then.
Piastri suffered a shock at the British Grand Prix last weekend, finishing seventh in the sprint and 11th in the grand prix after an opening-lap collision with Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls. This dropped him to sixth in the standings, 97 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli and six points ahead of Verstappen.
While Piastri could easily return to the top five, Verstappen is 78 points behind second place – a mathematical impossibility.
Piastri re-signed with McLaren ahead of the 2025 season on a multi-year deal that will theoretically keep him at Papaya until the end of 2028. Both he and chief executive Zac Brown confirmed their intention to honor the deal as recently as last week.
But rumors about Verstappen continue to circulate. The Dutchman is deeply dissatisfied with Red Bull’s performance and has crashed off the track in similar circumstances at each of the last two races.
In the final moments of qualifying in Austria, Verstappen spun at the super-fast penultimate corner. Then at the end of the race at Silverstone he went off the track again at the high-speed right-hander at Stowe and had to be rescued from the gravel trap.
Both incidents are believed to be related to Red Bull’s so-called “Macarena” rear wing, which rotates 180 degrees rather than lifting when opened. In both incidents, Verstappen appeared to lose his rear end moments after the wing closed, suggesting that the spin was due to the “reconnection” of airflow after the wing closed.
“It’s very dangerous because (I could have gotten hurt) twice,” he said.
“I was lucky in Austria, I’m lucky here. That’s why it really gets old.”
The fact that Verstappen is starting to turn against his team is a sign that he has little faith that they will even be able to build a car that he can rely on.
Rumors about a potential swap between Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will not go away. Getty
There is no doubt that acquiring Verstappen would be a huge coup for McLaren, but his demands would undoubtedly go against the team’s core philosophy of fairness.
Since Daniel Ricciardo’s departure from Red Bull at the end of 2018, Verstappen has become the clear No. 1 driver. McLaren famously doesn’t have a No. 1 or No. 2 driver, and they vow to treat every driver equally, even if it hurts themselves.
It seems incomprehensible that the four-time world champion did not lay claim to the No. 1 title, much less that McLaren gave in to his demands. Moreover, his teammate will presumably become a world champion himself.
And even if hell did wake up cold one morning and McLaren gave in to Max and demoted Norris to No.2 status, would such a reversal of its own values and principles yield better results than they are already achieving? It’s hard to say yes.
Like Red Bull, McLaren have had a difficult start to the season. Each driver accounted for second and third places, with Norris also leading the McLaren 1-2 in the Miami sprint race.
The team sits third in the constructors’ standings, a whopping 154 points behind Mercedes and 78 points behind Ferrari. Red Bull is 51 points behind.
At the same time last season, McLaren had a 197-point lead over Ferrari and had won seven of nine Grands Prix.
It made no sense for Piastri to leave McLaren. Despite their early season struggles, this team is likely still on the rise. There is stability in its management team, and Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will also join the team in 2028.
Meanwhile, Red Bull have also lost Adrian Newey and Christian Horner in the last two years and the team is now in crisis. Tensions also remain within the owners of Red Bull GmbH over the management of the team.
Having won all but one Grand Prix in 2023, the Milton Keynes team are struggling to even break into the top five just three years later.
Based on this, McLaren have a much better chance of getting their proverb right and becoming contenders again. Moving away from this, even to a team where Piastri would be the clear number one, would be a stupid idea.
Oscar Piastri and Mark Webber in 2025. Getty
But Mark Webber, Piastri’s manager, has proven he can see opportunities where others cannot. He wrenched Piastri out of his Alpine contract – albeit through some apparent incompetence – and he will know the details of the McLaren deal inside and out.
And it remains popular among Red Bull GmbH executives.
The Formula One circus is in the middle of a series of four races over five weekends ahead of the mid-season break.
The season continues with the Belgian Grand Prix at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit on July 19.