McLaren addresses Piastri's future amid Red Bull Racing rumors

Amid rumours of Max Verstappen potentially joining McLaren, alongside his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase who is set to switch roles no later than 2028 to become the team’s new Chief Racing Officer, Piastri was mentioned as the driver who could complete a straight swap and move to Red Bull Racing.

McLaren team boss Stella does not think the Australian would end up leaving the Woking-based team. In Montreal, he explained: "Well, I think the reaction is in the question. You mentioned the silly season, and I think we are already fully in this silly season. When we think about Oscar, we couldn’t be happier. I think we are seeing the best Oscar in the cockpit and also a happy Oscar, and the best version of himself outside the cockpit. Great dynamics and relationship with Lando, and I think the team is in its strongest shape since I’ve been Team Principal. So definitely it’s very clear, the direction for maximum stability at McLaren."

The Red Bull team boss added: "Honestly, it’s not so dissimilar to Andrea’s comments, in the way that we have a very, very strong driver line-up, and the driver choice is not a question that we are asking ourselves right now. We have Max, nobody needs to present Max. He is pulling us up through a fairly complicated start of the season.

The Frenchman also addressed Jos Verstappen, father of Max Verstappen, meeting with Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff on Thursday. Mekies does not believe it was a message to Red Bull. He said: "I tell you what, as much as it may sound exciting to see that from the outside, I really don’t think there is an intention particularly behind. If any of these guys wants to have a chat, it’s going to be a story anyway. So, we speak all the time with Max and with Jos. It’s completely natural that they can have a conversation with Toto. Max was racing in a Mercedes last week, a GT3. So, I genuinely don’t think it’s part of a game plan to get a message or another through."