Rumours that Max Verstappen is in talks with McLaren about a potential move have gained traction since last weekend’s Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, despite a belated move by CEO Zak Brown to shut down the possibility.
Naturally, both the current McLaren drivers faced questioning on this topic ahead of the British GP at Silverstone, and the divergence in their line of thought was intriguing. Lando Norris was bullish, saying he believed he could beat anyone, so he could handle having Max as a team-mate.
Oscar Piastri, though, in deflecting the rumours, appeared to be making the tacit assumption that if such a move were to happen then he would be the driver leaving to make way for Verstappen.
“For me, it doesn’t really mean much,” Piastri told media including Motorsport.com. “Obviously, Max, the talent that he is, is looking around.
“I’m very happy with who I am. I’ve been told multiple times that they [McLaren] are happy with me and I trust them.
“I’ve got a contract in place as well. So, yeah, for me, it doesn’t change anything. I’m just trying to go on a successful path.”
In many ways this is a classic example of a narrative developing its own momentum and escalating out of control: a driver or their manager is witnessed having coffee with the boss of another team, and a casual chat is assumed to be the opening phase of a significant contract negotiation.
Sometimes it really is just coffee and a chat. On other occasions, the real agenda is to put something out there to strengthen an individual’s hand in an entirely separate negotiation. In this case, for example, Verstappen and his management are showing Red Bull the proverbial whip – it’s known they want to stay within that family for the long term, but require certain assurances about performance and development.
In this context it does no harm to Verstappen to be seen to be talking to McLaren, or vice versa, since Brown doesn’t want his drivers to become too complacent. Hence there was no denial at the time; it was only when certain elements within the media began to announce it as a done deal that Brown moved to quash the rumours definitively.
It’s understood there has been some agitation behind the scenes, and that Piastri’s management team have responded negatively to the accelerating momentum of the Verstappen talk.
Piastri ultimately finished over half a minute behind teammate Norris in Spain.
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
For its part, McLaren is understood to have cooled slightly in its enthusiasm for Piastri, having liberated him from Alpine’s driver-development programme in mid-2022. Having built a convincing lead in last year’s world championship – leading by 309 points to Norris’ 275 and Verstappen’s 205 after winning at Zandvoort, round 15 of the 24 – Piastri’s form slumped in the following races and he claimed only three more podiums over the remainder of the season.
Although McLaren maintains a policy of equal opportunity between its drivers, it found itself constantly and debilitatingly under fire in the court of public opinion, and the subject of implausible conspiracy theories claiming Norris was being given favourable treatment. There were those in the Piastri camp actively fuelling that fire, at one point using his account to re-share an Instagram post quoting former F1 ‘ringmaster’ Bernie Ecclestone saying McLaren was prioritising Norris.
Ahead of this season, Piastri revealed he had worked intensively over the winter to resolve what was holding him back at low-grip tracks. He also changed his entourage at race weekends.
In terms of the qualifying head-to-head, Piastri is even with Norris in 2026 across grands prix, though Norris has outqualified him in all the sprints. Piastri is one point ahead in the championship, although the points picture is muddied by both drivers having reliability-related failures.
Nevertheless Piastri said he had “homework” to do after Barcelona, where he finished a distant fifth, 35s behind his team-mate.
“It wasn’t necessarily one specific thing about tracks like Barcelona or Austria,” he said in Silverstone.
“All those kind of temperatures that was the issue. A few things across the board that we could have just been doing better. I think Barcelona was a bit of a wake-up call.
“Austria was back to where we should have been at. I think there was a few specifics on those kind of tracks and those kind of races, managing tyres and stuff like that.
“I don’t think the ability to be able to do it was ever really in question. It was just making sure we were in the right places and doing the right things in the development.”
So, while the Verstappen rumours are likely to come to nothing, it’s clear Piastri has an awareness that there is room for improvement at his end.
