Oscar Piastri’s new McLaren contract has knock-on effect in F1 driver market

McLaren have tied down Oscar Piastri to a long-term F1 contract in a move which makes sense for all involved.

The announcement came ahead of this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix - Piastri’s home race - and follows a highly successful 2024 campaign in which McLaren ended a 26-year wait to win the constructors’ championship.

It is all part of McLaren’s recent strategy of nailing down key staff members and their drivers for the future as they try to build a winning culture once again at Woking.

Although McLaren have not communicated the details of the deal, the new multi-year contract presumably takes Piastri, who was already contracted until 2026, nearer to the end of the decade, most likely until at least 2028.

The deal is believed to put him on par with teammate Lando Norris, who reportedly earns around £20 million per year.

McLaren are ensuring they are keeping what they believe to be the strongest and most exciting driver pairing on the F1 grid intact as they target further success in the coming years.

"Not only is Oscar an incredibly talented driver, but his work ethic and cultural fit within the team made it a no-brainer to extend his time in papaya,” McLaren CEO Zak Brown said.

"We've got the best driver line-up on the grid, and in the past two seasons, we've seen how much of an asset to the team Oscar is both on and off track.

"He was absolutely fundamental in adding to our legacy with the 2024 constructors' championship last season, so we're all excited to see what we can do in the years to come as we continue to fight for world championships together."

Is there a bigger picture at play?

As well as getting their ducks in a row with Piastri’s contract extension, McLaren have also sent out a strong message to their F1 rivals; hands off.

It is a clear attempt to ward off any interest from rival teams who may be tempted to try and lure Piastri away from McLaren in the coming years.

At 23 years old, Piastri is one of the hottest prospects in F1 and is tipped by many in the paddock to be a world champion in the making. Last year he won two grands prix on his way to fourth in the world championship in just his second season.

He would be top of many team’s wish-lists were they to be in need of a driver. If Max Verstappen quit Red Bull, or a seat opened up at Mercedes, Piastri would be a standout candidate for both of those teams.

Indeed, Red Bull in particular have already made their interest in Piastri known.

Red Bull have been sniffing around Piastri since his early racing days - which included back-to-back titles in Formula 3 and Formula 2 - but failed to snap him up.

That is something Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted was a regret of his during an appearance on F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast back in 2022.

"There was an opportunity for Red Bull to look at him at the time and we didn't take up that option, which is something that I regret,” Horner said.

Horner also talked up the prospect of Piastri in the latest season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive, which released earlier this month.

Horner is asked by a producer: “If you could have one of the McLaren drivers, which one would it be?”

To which, Horner, without hesitation, responds: “Oscar.”

Towards the end of last season, Red Bull’s Helmut Marko claimed that Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, was attempting to open negotiations with the team.

Such talk was dismissed by Piastri, who has gone on to commit his future to McLaren.

Foreshadowing more drama?

Although the finer details of Piastri’s contract are not known, it would not be a surprise if there was some kind of exit clause included within the terms - something which is not uncommon in F1.

While that is nothing more than pure speculation at this stage, it would be remiss of Piastri’s management not to keep the door open to potential opportunities which may fall his way in the future.

After all, things change very quickly in F1 and history shows that contracts often are not worth the paper they are written on.

At a similar time last year, McLaren thrashed out a new long-term deal for Norris just days before Lewis Hamilton’s bombshell transfer from Mercedes to Ferrari rocked the F1 world in February.

Was that just coincidence, or had McLaren caught wind of potential movement in the driver market and responded by protecting one of their star assets?

One of the biggest talking points heading into the 2025 season is the future of Verstappen.

With a regulation overhaul on the horizon and signs of cracks appearing in 2024, Red Bull head into 2025 under huge pressure.

Not least because they need to prove to Verstappen that they are still the team to beat in F1.

Verstappen clinched a fourth consecutive drivers’ crown last term but Red Bull slipped to third in the constructors’. The talk is that Red Bull are starting the new campaign on the back foot, with Verstappen already ruling out their victory prospects in Melbourne.

Verstappen is under contract until the end of 2028 but it is believed his deal has performance clauses in it, meaning the 27-year-old Dutchman could leave if Red Bull fail to produce a winning car.

With question marks lingering how the team will cope following the loss of key personnel including legendary designer Adrian Newey, and uncertainty over how competitive Red Bull’s first in-house engine will be in 2026, speculation about Verstappen’s future is unlikely to go away.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has been publicly courting Verstappen for months, while Aston Martin could be another option with the team said to preparing an astronomical bid to try and lure the four-time world champion.

Ferrari - F1’s most iconic and famous team - should not be discounted from the equation either, despite only recently signing seven-time world champion Hamilton. Hamilton’s contract is understood to be an initial two-year deal running until the end of 2026.

Whether Verstappen will stay loyal to Red Bull, or be tempted to jump ship, is set to dominate the coming months. Whatever decision Verstappen makes will have direct ramifications on the wider driver market.