Oscar Piastri exit rumour swirls as claim emerges that he’s ‘looking to join’ McLaren’s rival Red Bull
Oscar Piastri is reportedly looking for a way out of McLaren after missing out on the F1 title, with claims emerging he’s focused on one team.
A bombshell claim has emerged that Oscar Piastri is looking for a way out of his McLaren deal after narrowly missing out on winning the F1 drivers’ title in 2025.
Just months ago, Piastri looked well on his way to a maiden crown, but a run of poor results along with some questionable strategic calls from his team saw him overtaken by teammate Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after the summer break.
In the end, he finished 11 points adrift of Verstappen and 13 points behind Norris.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown made a point at the end of the final race of the season to tell Piastri how proud he was of him and that he will be a champion one day, but it seemed more like damage control than anything as McLaren were consistently accused of favouring Norris over the Aussie during the 2025 season.
And according to F1 journalists Rebecca Clancy and Ben Hunt, Piastri could be on the move to a rival team despite being on a multi-year contract at McLaren.
Speaking on F1 podcast Inside the Piranha Club, Clancy said the talk of the paddock is that Piastri is ‘looking to join Red Bull’: “What about this relationship between the drivers, because there were a lot of rumours about Piastri.
“We know that both McLaren drivers are signed on multi-year contracts; they never tell us exactly how long.
“Piastri’s contract is thought to run to the end of 2028; however, there were a lot of rumours in the paddock over the weekend that Piastri was looking to join Red Bull from 2027.
“How would that work?”
Hunt replied: “Well, it could definitely work. Who knows what’s going to happen next year with regards to Ford’s progress, whether Verstappen has enough, whether he wants to go somewhere else?
“There’s a lot that can happen next year with the change in regulations, and I think it’s very early to be talking about that.
“I’m sure conversations have happened with regard to the parties, and what if. You wouldn’t be a Formula 1 manager doing your business if you weren’t checking on people’s availability, so it’s entirely plausible that that could happen.
“But we won’t know until halfway through, or certainly a quarter of the way through next season.
“If Ford do come in with a super engine and Red Bull pull it all together, then Verstappen won’t be going anywhere, and people will be looking to join that team, and it’s not just Oscar Piastri, it’s probably all of them lining up to join.
“But I don’t know if that’s going to happen because Ford still have quite a lot of work to do behind the scenes.”
Red Bull and Ford are partnering from 2026, developing next-gen hybrid power units under the ‘Red Bull Ford Powertrains’ banner, which if all goes to plan, will see the Red Bull car faster and more efficient than ever.
If it goes to plan, Verstappen will be eager to stay put, and drivers will be angling to join him in the second seat.
It is not the first time Piastri has been linked to Red Bull.
Back in April, when asked about links to the F1 juggernaut, Piastri told Sport: “That’s flattering, of course, but ultimately, I don’t care at all. I see my future at McLaren. That’s why I recently extended my contract early beyond 2026.
“You never know how good a team will be. I’m confident we’ll continue to be at the front. The development we’ve undergone is incredible.
“At the beginning of 2023, we were last, now we’re the ones with the best car – and that without a rule revolution. We now want to crown this journey by winning both world championship titles.”
F1 expert Cameron van den Dungen believes Piastri won’t be jumping ship at least not before the 2026 season, but expects his agent Mark Webber will be working behind the scenes to get him the best chance of winning a title, whether that be at or away from McLaren.
“F1 drivers will go where the best technical package is, they won’t worry about their wage so much,” he told SEN.
“The big money may be thrown at him, but he’s going to look at the cars available to him.
“Next year he stays at McLaren, he’s got his deal there, you’re not going to jump ship, they’re the team to be with.
“But Mark Webber will be having some significant meetings right now. We’ve seen pictures of him with Adrian Newey the new team boss at Aston Martin.
“They’re the outlier, we don’t know where they’re going to be. George Russell had quite a public standoff with Merc wanting his multi-year deal, they wanted Max. The musical chairs is ever ever-present.
“Oscar will definitely be looking around but it won’t be because of the tensions at McLaren, he wont care about that so long as they can give him a car that challenges for world titles.”
Originally published as Oscar Piastri exit rumour swirls as claim emerges that he’s ‘looking to join’ McLaren’s rival Red Bull
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