Listen to Pit Talk here ><\/a><\/p>\nAsked ahead of this weekend\u2019s Belgian Grand Prix whether he would continue racing for McLaren next season, Piastri was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he answered, per The Athletic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realise it was a point of contention, but yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri signed his latest contract only last March, keeping him at McLaren until the end of 2028, and he reiterated that he is \u201cvery comfortable with where I am and where I sit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cZak and Andrea [Stella, McLaren principal] and the whole team have been great through all that [speculation], very reassuring. I\u2019ve been the same for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, Max is feeling \u2014 I don\u2019t know, maybe he\u2019s not in a great position at the moment or exploring options. It was the same thing last year with him and Mercedes, so it\u2019s nothing new.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m very happy with where I\u2019m at, where things are at, and how it\u2019s all going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piastri\u2019s answers also quash alternative rumours that he could be seeking to trigger some sort of exit clause of his own to pre-empt an adverse team decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust in what Zak and Andrea have said to me and the belief in me as well,\u201d Piastri said in a separate interview. \u201cI\u2019m happy with where I am, the team around me, how things are going.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate their belief and their support and their trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘F*** THIS’ Verstappen rages after crash | 01:09<\/p>\n
VERSTAPPEN REMAINS NON-COMMITTAL<\/p>\n
An essential element from the Verstappen side of the rumours is the Dutchman\u2019s reportedly deteriorating relationship with his team as it remains stubbornly out of victory contention.<\/p>\n
Reports in recent weeks suggested Verstappen had attended a meeting of Red Bull bigwigs in Austria ahead of the brand\u2019s home Austrian Grand Prix last month, where he was asked to verbally commit to the team for 2027 to help secure prospective sponsors and new staff to replace the high-profile names that have departed the squad in recent years.<\/p>\n
Verstappen apparently refused to give those assurances, which some accounts suggest angered the hierarchy, which felt it demonstrated a lack of loyalty from a driver who owed his improbable teenage debut to the brand.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman remained similarly noncommittal about his future with a series of brief answers to questions in the pre-weekend press conference.<\/p>\n
Asked if there\u2019s any update on his future, he replied: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he made of the speculation, he said: \u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether he had a date in mind to make a decision, he responded: \u201cNope. There\u2019s nothing to say from my side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was he at least fully committed to the team for the rest of the year? <\/p>\n
\u201cI said there\u2019s nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leclerc wins amidst safety car confusion | 03:32<\/p>\n
He was slightly more expansive responding to a direct question about whether he wanted to stay at Red Bull Racing or would be driving for Red Bull Racing in 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to go here and say yes and no and this and that about my future,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve said already many times that if there was something new, I would say it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to Dutch media, Verstappen insisted he hadn\u2019t yet made a decision about his future, making any speculation premature.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just busy trying to make sure we take the right steps here,\u201d he said, per Autosport. \u201dOutside of that, I had my sister\u2019s wedding as well, so everything will come naturally. That\u2019s always been the case.\u201c<\/p>\n
Part of Red Bull\u2019s determination to elicit a commitment from Verstappen \u2014 or to buy out the exit clause in his contract, a request he also rebuffed \u2014 is that Verstappen reportedly doesn\u2019t have to tell the team of any decision until October, by which time the driver market may have already been settled, leaving the team with few options to replace him.<\/p>\n
Verstappen denied he felt any pressure from the team to make a call.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, they can\u2019t really put pressure on me anyway,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe just take it step by step. All our conversations are basically about the car and how we can improve the car. In that respect, the atmosphere is exactly as it has always been, and that\u2019s how it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has dismissed speculation that he could be replaced by Max Verstappen at McLaren next year following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-805057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805057","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=805057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n