Piastri responds to Red Bull rumours amid Verstappen's uncertain F1 future

GPblog has reported on several occasions that Piastri is viewed as the most logical option to replace Verstappen, with the Aussie's manager, the former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, understood to be on the lookout for a lead driver role at a top team.

Piastri, however, has poured cold water on the potential move, although admitted he finds reports linking him with the Red Bull seat as "flattering." Speaking to media, including GPblog in Canada on Thursday, Piastri said: "It is news to me, there’s obviously not been any discussions or anything.

Elsewhere, Piastri's McLaren boss Zak Brown has also brushed aside reports linking the Aussie with the Red Bull seat. Speaking to The Athletic, Brown reiterated his aim to create an environment neither Piastri nor Lando Norris would want to leave. He said: “I would imagine there’s not a team on the grid that wouldn’t want to have Oscar and Lando driving for them.

Brown admitted that every team wants the strongest possible driver line-up, but the McLaren CEO made it clear that he would not swap his current pairing for any other combination on the Formula 1 grid: “The first thing on your shopping list is the best drivers in the world. In all of our racing series, the number one goal is the best driver line-up that you can get. I wouldn’t trade ours for any other combination on the grid.”

As mentioned, a critical factor on whether Piastri could move to Red Bull is Verstappen's F1 future, which has been made more clear in the build up to the Canadian GP. The Dutchman has suggested the planned power unit change from a 50:50 split between internal combustion to electrical power to 60:40 in favour of the ICE in 2027 could be enough to keep him in the sport.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, on whether the changes will impact his future, Verstappen said: "Yeah, definitely. I mean, I just want a good product in Formula One and that will for sure improve the product.”

The Red Bull man was then asked if his recent Nurburgring 24-Hour race has impacted his perception of F1 and what he wants from the sport, to which Verstappen replied: "It was also just depending on the future rules. So what I said before with the changes, hopefully that will happen next year, that will already help a lot. Because I've always said it doesn't matter if I had a good car or not, it's just the product and I think the product will improve like that so naturally I think then the enjoyment will go up as well."