McLaren’s early deal for Piastri wards off interest from rival F1 teams

McLaren has sent its latest statement of intent to rival Formula 1 teams aiming to pick it apart as it announced an early contract renewal for Oscar Piastri.

The news that the Australian has committed his future by penning a fresh multi-year contract – wording which suggests he will at least be at the squad until 2028 – means McLaren is putting its money where its mouth is. The outfit has long maintained both he and Lando Norris have what it takes to be world champions in the future, and it was appreciative of how Piastri handled eventually being asked to support Norris’ 2024 title bid.

While Norris grabbed most of the headlines in the fight against Max Verstappen, Piastri took his first two grand prix wins last year as soon as McLaren gave him a car capable of doing so. And while the 23-year-old came away from an up-and-down 2024 campaign with some homework to become a more consistent performer, both over one lap and over a race distance, it is easy to forget Piastri only has two F1 seasons under his belt, with the best surely yet to come.

McLaren has now ensured it will be the benefactor of that prime Piastri, but just as important is that the Australian’s new deal is a clear sign to its rivals looking to pick apart a winning squad.

“If you could have one of the McLaren drivers, which one would it be?”

Netflix’s Drive to Survive producer barely managed to finish her sentence before Red Bull team boss Christian Horner blurted out: “Oscar.”

Red Bull’s interest in Piastri is not new, with Horner living to regret the decision not to snap up the young Australian for his junior team when he had the chance.

The team continued sniffing around Piastri during his sensational debut campaign with McLaren in 2023, and last year Piastri’s future was the subject of speculation again when Red Bull’s Helmut Marko let slip that his manager Mark Webber was keen to have a conversation about his protege’s future.

Piastri rubbished Marko’s comments at the time, and now McLaren has responded the same way it did when it handed him a contract extension barely halfway through his 2023 maiden campaign. It tied down one of its prized assets early, well before his current deal is set to expire in 2026.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Having become the outfit to beat in F1 over the past 10 months, McLaren is now facing the difficult task of keeping that winning team together. It’s a challenge that its main rival Red Bull has struggled with, which McLaren played a part in by first poaching designer Rob Marshall and then strategy chief Will Courtenay, for whom McLaren is being made to wait.

Following McLaren’s slightly unusual move last month to decide issuing a bespoke press statement saying it had extended aero guru Peter Prodromou’s contract, Piastri’s new deal is the latest statement of intent that the papaya squad is not keen on giving its competitors any openings to destabilise or weaken it.

By getting ahead of the game and securing Piastri’s services before the 2025 season has even started, McLaren has now ensured that neither of its drivers’ future will end up becoming the subject of noise and speculation as F1 moves into the new regulations’ era in 2026, when the team will already have enough on its plate to hit the ground running.

McLaren feels it has found its ideal driver pairing for years to come, and it still believes it can continue to make things work with two number-one drivers. It has always said that its decision to back Norris in the final third of 2024 was situational, and that if Piastri were to be in Norris’ position he too would have received the same support.

Time will tell if McLaren can pull off that difficult balancing act while also keeping its winning team intact. Piastri’s long-term renewal suggests he feels that it can.