Guenther Steiner says Oscar Piastri should leave McLaren if he doesn’t win the championship with them. Image: XPB Images
Speaking on the Red Flags Podcast, Steiner said Piastri’s future at McLaren should hinge on the outcome of the final three rounds, with the 24-year-old now 24 points behind teammate Lando Norris and just 25 ahead of Max Verstappen.
“Especially if he doesn’t win the championship, I think he has got a good chance to get in any other good car,” Steiner said.
“He’s a good driver, and change sometimes is good. He’s young enough, he can adapt to it. He should and I think he will. That’s my opinion.”
Steiner argued that anything less than a reset over the winter break should force Piastri to consider moving on.
“He just needs to regroup over the winter and come back stronger than before,” he said.
“Otherwise, if he doesn’t come back stronger, I think the best for him is that he changes teams then. But he could come back because I still rate him highly.”
Piastri led the standings for 15 rounds between the Saudi Arabia and United States grands prix but has endured a bruising run since, managing only one podium since his Dutch Grand Prix win in August while crashing out of both the Austin and Sao Paulo sprint races and retiring in Azerbaijan.
The slump has opened the door for both Norris and a resurgent Verstappen, who Steiner believes will overhaul the Australian in the standings if the trend continues.
“Why not? He continues to do it,” Steiner said.
“If you say Oscar is now destroyed mentally, then Max will be ahead of him, absolutely.
“Max is motivated, as we’ve seen in Brazil. He didn’t give up after a crappy qualifying.
“He rolled his sleeves up and made it better and finished on the podium.”
Meanwhile, with the Australian heading into the Las Vegas–Qatar–Abu Dhabi triple-header trying to steady a championship campaign that has slipped after a run of poor results, questions continue to swirl in the paddock about McLaren’s approach, with some claiming the team has favoured Lando Norris at crucial moments.
Australia’s last F1 World Champion, Alan Jones, weighed in on the debate, telling the ABC the claims are “completely baseless” and insisting both drivers are being treated equally.
“No, I think it’s the greatest load of nonsense of all time,” Jones said, adding that similar accusations have surfaced in countless past title fights.
“Every single season we come across this bullshit, every time.
“It’s either Mark Webber against Vettel or it’s somebody [else]. It’s always at them ‘oh he’s got a better car than me’ or ‘he’s getting preferential treatment’, it’s absolute crap.”
Jones said McLaren would never compromise one car to benefit another in a championship battle.
“These teams don’t spend absolute fortunes travelling halfway around the world to stymie one car or give preference to the other,” he added.
“I can assure you both these cars are getting the same sort of treatment. I know Zak Brown [McLaren CEO] very well, he’s a good racer, and he’d be giving both these blokes equal chances.”
He also blamed the conspiracy theories on armchair experts misreading a complex sport.
“Then you get all the rare experts coming out of the woodwork… Half of them wouldn’t know one end of a car from another… It’s just nonsense.”
The Las Vegas Grand Prix takes place this weekend at the Las Vegas Street Circuit.
