A major rumor has once again stirred up the Formula 1 paddock. Following the Miami Grand Prix, reports from authoritative outlets including Sky Sports suggest that while Max Verstappen’s contract remains solid, Red Bull’s top brass is already preparing for the future. Should the Dutchman leave the team, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri emerges as the primary replacement candidate.
With the gradual departure of legendary advisor Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s traditional “internal breeding” model—developing talent through its junior academy to support the lead driver—is undergoing a shift. Under current team principals Laurent Mekies and Oliver Mintzlaff, the team is adopting a more flexible, market-driven approach, actively seeking external top-tier talent as a cornerstone for its future.
Red Bull’s interest in Piastri is far from baseless. The young Australian driver has displayed remarkable stability and competitiveness beyond his years both on and off the track, making him a widely recognized ideal candidate in the paddock. Although the team has not abandoned investment in its junior program—promoting Isack Hadjar to a full-time race seat—management believes that, for a top-tier team with over 2,000 employees where the driver is central to technical development and commercial interests, current junior talents are not yet ready to take the lead.
Piastri, after a rocky start to the season, quickly rebounded with podium finishes in Japan and Miami, proving his ceiling. More intriguing are his recent moves: he has chosen to involve his manager Mark Webber less in race weekends, instead communicating more directly with his F2 engineer Pedro Matos. This pursuit of efficiency and focus has significantly eased internal tensions at McLaren.
Meanwhile, sources indicate that Webber is channeling more energy into commercial ventures. Motorsports reports suggest that the former Red Bull driver has used his connections to reopen dialogue with the energy drink giant, scouting a potential new home for Piastri.
However, prizing Piastri away from McLaren is no easy task. The Australian is under contract with Woking until 2027, giving CEO Zak Brown a strong hand in any negotiations. While the paddock buzzes with wild speculation about a potential “swap” between Verstappen and Piastri, McLaren currently shows no clear interest in the four-time champion, who is reportedly frustrated more by F1’s new regulations than by his own team’s performance.
In the paddock, contracts are never insurmountable obstacles. Once a driver’s desire to leave peaks, commercial negotiations quickly follow. For Red Bull, the reopened dialogue channel between Webber and his former team could be the prelude to a talent war. In this post-Marko era of uncertainty, Red Bull is fully prepared to activate the “Piastri plan” the moment Verstappen suddenly decides to retire, take a sabbatical, or join another team.
