Oscar Piastri urged to leave McLaren in F1 2026 crossroads claim

Guenther Steiner believes that Oscar Piastri should bid McLaren farewell and continue his Formula 1 career elsewhere, either once his current contract expires or if he fails to rebound in F1 2026.

Piastri is looking to rescue his faltering F1 2025 title challenge, having gone five grands prix without a podium. At this point, Steiner believes Piastri needs to be looking over his shoulder at Max Verstappen, with Piastri potentially “destroyed mentally” by the events of the season.

Oscar Piastri urged to leave McLaren by Guenther Steiner

When the second half of F1 2025 got underway, it looked as though Piastri was marching towards the Drivers’ Championship. Following his Dutch Grand Prix victory – the race where teammate and title rival Lando Norris suffered a late DNF – Piastri was 34 points clear at the top of the standings.

But, with three rounds to go, it is Norris in P1, 24 points clear of Piastri, who has not featured on the podium in the last five rounds.

Despite the performance rut in which he finds himself, Piastri’s motivation has not evidently waned, nor are there any suggestions that he is growing disillusioned with McLaren life. Yet, Steiner – the former Red Bull technical operations director and ex-Haas team principal – believes the Australian racer should be planning his exit route.

Piastri is under contract at McLaren until at least the end of 2028.

Steiner was speaking on the Red Flags podcast when the topic of Piastri’s future came up in the Gas Or Brake segment. A statement is played, and Steiner must either choose ‘gas’ to signal his agreement or ‘brake’ to challenge it.

“Gas,” he declared to the suggestion that Piastri should leave McLaren when his contract is up. “Especially if he doesn’t win the championship.

“I think he has a good chance to get in any other good car. He’s a good driver. And change sometimes is good. He’s young enough; he can adapt to it. He should, and I think he will.”

Then came the next prompt of: ‘Max will finish ahead of Oscar in the championship.’

“Gas,” Steiner replied once more.

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Max Verstappen has been on a mission. Since Formula 1 returned from the summer break, he has finished on the podium at every round. That streak included winning the Italian, Azerbaijan, and United States GPs.

His hopes of securing a fifth straight Drivers’ title may have taken a major hit in Brazil, where Norris put 49 points between him and the Dutchman, but Steiner believes that Verstappen will successfully catch and pass Piastri for second.

“You guys saw what happened in Brazil, or not in Brazil, the last four races. So, why not?” Steiner reasoned.

“I mean, he continues to do it.

“If you say that Oscar is now destroyed mentally, I mean, Max will be ahead of him, absolutely. And Max is motivated like hell. As we can see in Brazil, he didn’t give up after a crappy qualifying. He rolled his sleeves up and made it better, and finished on the podium.”

Should Piastri remain in this rut until season’s end, Steiner was asked what this would do to the Aussie’s reputation going forward.

One thing it would do, in Steiner’s estimation, is bring forward the date to leave the team, should Piastri not come back better than ever in F1 2026.

This is only his third Formula 1 season, compared to Norris’ seventh, though it would be a painful defeat having been in such a commanding position to seal the title.

“I think if that is happening, he just needs to regroup over the winter and come back stronger than before,” said Steiner.

“Otherwise, if he doesn’t come back stronger, I think the best is that he changes teams then. That’s my opinion about it.

“Because otherwise, you don’t get it back. But he could come back, because I still rate him highly.”

PF1: It’s too early for talk of the Oscar Piastri and McLaren demise

This is a critical point in the F1 career of Oscar Piastri, but there is not yet a valid reason to start questioning his McLaren future.

Sure, Piastri has lost that aura of unflappability over recent months. He never seemed like the kind of driver who would suffer from the pressure of an F1 title fight. But the keyword there is F1.

He hoovered up the championship trophies on the junior scene, but the first indication of how a driver will deal with the pressure of fighting for the F1 title comes when they are actually doing it.

Piastri has had some rough weekends, and with Formula 1 as ultra-competitive as it is now, just the slightest knock in confidence, or the slightest disconnect with the car, will allow a Norris, or a Verstappen, or a George Russell, or a Kimi Antonelli, or a Charles Leclerc to take advantage. Suddenly, in Piastri’s case, points are being lost.

But the saying ‘you’re only as good as your last race’ rings especially true in Formula 1. If Piastri goes and wins in Las Vegas, or at least takes a chunk out of Norris’ lead, suddenly, this rough patch will be forgotten, and he will be on that big quest to dramatically rebound and win the title, as the driver with momentum.

Let’s not forget that Piastri could easily have finished second in Brazil without his 10-second penalty.

So, Piastri is not necessarily broken; he is not finished at McLaren. Even if this is not his year, F1 2026 may be. Perhaps it is F1 2027.

Two defeats to Lewis Hamilton didn’t stop Nico Rosberg from winning the 2016 crown, for example.

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