{"id":686152,"date":"2026-05-21T23:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686152\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:49:10","slug":"oscar-piastri-responds-to-max-verstappen-red-bull-replacement-rumours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686152\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri responds to Max Verstappen Red Bull replacement rumours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar Piastri has conceded to feeling &#8220;flattered&#8221; by the surprise rumours linking him to Red Bull should Max Verstappen leave the team.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Following the Miami Grand Prix at the start of the month, speculation emerged that Piastri was Red Bull&#8217;s top target to replace the four-time F1 champion at the Milton Keynes-based organisation.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Over the first few months of this campaign, Verstappen has heavily criticised the new cars following a major regulation overhaul, leading to his overall lack of enjoyment with the style of racing in Formula 1.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Dutchman has refused to dismiss suggestions he could leave at the end of the current campaign, although ahead of this weekend&#8217;s Canadian Grand Prix, <a href=\"https:\/\/racingnews365.com\/max-verstappen-delivers-clarity-on-f1-future-following-major-fia-change\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he has at least indicated the sport is heading in the right direction<\/a> with a shift to a 60-40 power split between combustion and electrical energy for next season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull, though, is rumoured to be keen on signing Piastri as the replacement for Verstappen should he decide he definitely wants to call it a day.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>As to whether he was flattered by the link and whether the speculation was news to him, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, ahead of this weekend&#8217;s grand prix in Montr\u00e9al, Piastri said: &#8220;It is news to me, yes.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s obviously not been any discussions or anything, but it&#8217;s flattering, and there&#8217;s not really much more than that.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully, it proves my stock as a driver, which is a nice thing.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>He then firmly nailed his colours to the McLaren mast by adding, &#8220;But I&#8217;m very happy with where I am.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a lot of confidence in this team that we are going to be able to win races and hopefully championships in the future, so I&#8217;m very happy where I am.&#8221;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has conceded to feeling &#8220;flattered&#8221; by the surprise rumours linking him to Red Bull should Max&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-686152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}