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Piastri, Verstappen, and the McLaren-Red Bull seat swap that won’t die

By Kavi Khandelwal

Mark Webber has shut down speculation that Oscar Piastri is looking for a way out of McLaren, calling the rumours swirling around his client "nonsense."

The comments land in the middle of a chaotic silly season. Talk of Max Verstappen joining McLaren has gone from background noise to the dominant storyline in the paddock since the British Grand Prix, where Verstappen's race-ending spin left him seventh in the championship. That result matters: it puts him within reach of triggering an exit clause from Red Bull once the summer break arrives, provided he's still outside the top two in the standings at that point. If Verstappen does move to Woking, one of McLaren's current drivers would need to make way. Piastri, managed by Webber, has borne the brunt of the speculation about who that might be — with some reports even floating a straight seat swap that would send him to Red Bull. Webber isn't entertaining it. Speaking to RACER, he said Piastri is contracted to the team "for the foreseeable future" and dismissed suggestions his client is agitating for an exit. He added that a lot of "fiction" has been written about Piastri and other teams, and pointed to McLaren's own repeated statements that they want to keep him long-term. Piastri has echoed that stance himself. Speaking during the British Grand Prix weekend, he said he has a contract in place and has received repeated reassurance that the team is happy with him — and that the feeling is mutual. It's worth noting the standings context fuelling the rumours in the first place. Piastri currently sits just behind teammate Lando Norris, with reports suggesting his own McLaren deal carries a release clause tied to his championship position at the summer break. That's given the paddock enough of a hook to keep the Verstappen-swap theory alive, even without anything close to official confirmation from any of the parties involved. McLaren CEO Zak Brown had already tried to cool things down before Webber's comments, saying at the Austrian Grand Prix weekend that he'd be surprised if either Norris or Piastri left, given how happy both are at the team — contracts aside. None of that has stopped the rumour mill. Verstappen's situation has grown more pressing after his Silverstone DNF, and with high-profile departures from Red Bull already in motion, the idea of him following suit has picked up real momentum in recent days. That's left Piastri's name attached to a storyline he's had no real hand in creating. For now, the message from Piastri's camp is consistent: nothing has changed on his end. Webber's denial is the clearest yet, but it arrives at a moment when the driver market is unusually fluid, and two race weekends remain before the summer break turns speculation into something more concrete one way or another. Whether that's enough to settle the noise is another question. Verstappen needs results to keep his own options theoretical rather than active, and Piastri needs to hold his ground in the standings to keep any contractual wrinkles out of the conversation entirely. Until then, expect the rumours to keep running well ahead of the facts.