Oscar Piastri warned against leaving McLaren
Originally published by Motorsportweek
Oscar Piastri has been warned against moving away from McLaren to Red Bull, as rumours of a switch continue to grow.
Piastri has endured a mixed start to 2026, suffering two consecutive DNS’ followed by a runner-up spot in Japan.
But rumours abound that Piastri is the prime target for Red Bull, who are seeking a potential replacement for Max Verstappen, should he walk away following his critique of the 2026 rules.
But former Ferrari Race Engineer Rob Smedley has warned Piastri against jumping ship, highlighting the competitive environment he would be giving up.
“If you’re a driver in that team and you’re struggling against your team-mate – I’m going back now to my Ferrari days – what’s the option for you?” he aid on the High Performance Racing podcast.
“Do you leave and go to a worse team that actually has no chance of winning the world championship, but you might be the better driver in that team?
“I’ve seen that on many an occasion, I’ve seen drivers do that and I’ve never seen it work out well. I’ve never seen it where the driver’s been happier.”
Grass not always greener on the other side?
Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer also warned the Australian against making the move to Red Bull, believing there are no guarantees Red Bull can rise to dominate F1 once again.
“Yeah, because there’s two things that happen,” he explained.
“That team you’re going to, you’re saying isn’t the best team, you’ve got to be the number one driver there, which you know you could be. But then that team also has to ascend to be the best team.
“And those two things are a bit more rare.
“Especially the team moving from third best to first, you know? Because usually there’s periods of six, seven years of Mercedes or four or five years of Red Bull or whatever it was with Ferrari and Michael [Schumacher] – about ten.
“So in those ten years, if you’re the number two at Ferrari and you say, ‘You know what, I want to be the number one somewhere else,’ you’ve got ten years of wherever you went is not the best team.”
Piastri faces a difficult choice should Red Bull come knocking: stay at McLaren as equal number one in the best car, or jump ship to a less competitive team, but unequivocally number one in the hope that they will improve.
Both have merits and downsides, and only careful consideration will lead to the right answer for the Australian.