The rumour mills around Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen simply refuse to quit. An earlier tweet from Mat Coch of PlanetF1.com had confirmed that the rumours were nothing but ‘hot air’. However, an update to the rumours has now arrived.  

Based on a report from Thomas Maher, also belonging to the aforementioned publication, McLaren Racing and Max Verstappen are in the ‘closing stages’ of finalizing a contract that could see him swap places with Oscar Piastri, whom we will talk about in some time. 

The report further suggests that Red Bull HQ held a meeting with Verstappen in Austria, after which the top execs are ‘angered’ by the driver’s unwillingness to commit to the team’s future. The driver has reportedly said no to Red Bull buying him out of his exit clause, which would remove the option from his contract entirely.  

This is said to have impacted Verstappen’s relations with the majority shareholder Mark Mateschitz, who is reportedly considering severing ties with the Dutchman. 

The rumours of Max Verstappen’s interest in McLaren picked up even more steam when Sky Sports presenter Craig Slater seemed to confirm that a meeting between Verstappen and the McLaren Racing team ‘indeed’ took place. According to Slater, Verstappen’s personal team was the one that reached out first. 

Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with the power unit regulations also led him to threaten to leave F1 entirely. However, while amendments to the regulations seem to have changed his mind on that front, his frustrations with Red Bull itself seem to have heightened over a recurring pattern of safety and reliability issues with the RB22. 

Furthermore, with many of the higher-ups of the team having left or about to leave, in the form of Gianpeiro Lambiase moving to McLaren, and (reportedly) Paul Monaghan to Cadillac, it is being said that Verstappen’s personal camp has lost faith in Red Bull. 

All of these signs are putting together a picture that isn’t a good one for RBR, making his exit look like a matter of when. 

The rumour from a Piastri perspective

Sometime earlier, a report from Spanish publication Grande Premio stated that Oscar Piastri is also mulling over triggering his exit clause, over what are claimed to be ‘strained relations’ with the team. 

The report states that former RBR driver Mark Webber, who has also been working as Piastri’s manager for some time now, has been working behind the scenes to find a new seat for the Australian driver, due to the team favouring Lando Norris in on-track strategy and decisions from last year. 

But interestingly, Piastri himself told formula1.com a few days ago that he has “got a contract in place, multiple reassurances that the team are very happy with me and I'm very happy with the team. For me, I'm very happy where I am and very happy with the situation I'm in.”

The same has also been reinforced by CEO Zak Brown in separate interactions, but his comments didn’t exactly seem to rule out the scenario entirely, giving Verstappen an outside chance, “if someone slips on a banana peel.”

Red Bull? McLaren? Just give us a damn update already.

Read more at Motor Culture

Written by

Aaradhya Singh

Edited by

Kaamna Dwivedi