Former McLaren Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has claimed that Oscar Piastri is likely to be engaging in talks with rival teams with the 2025 season now over.
The Australian endured a torrid end to his season, having led the Drivers’ Championship by 34 points into the final third of the campaign.
But a dip in form, coupled with rejuvenated performances from both team-mate Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, the former eventually snatching the title.
Piastri was at the centre of some contentious moments within the McLaren team as the season wore on, beginning with the position switch furore at Monza.
And then just a matter of weeks later at Singapore, a furious Piastri was shoved wide at the start of the race by Norris, but both incidents were quick put to bed by the team.
This has led Montoya, who drove for the team between 2005 and 2006, to believe that Piastri will be seeking alternative employment.
“I guarantee you that Oscar Piastri and Mark Webber [his manager] are already talking to another F1 team,” he said.
“I don’t think Mark Webber was satisfied with Oscar’s development at McLaren. Mark isn’t very happy with McLaren. But the question is whether Oscar is very unhappy with McLaren,”
The more prickly moments within the Woking-based squad have led many to speculate whether McLaren has been covertly favouring Norris, a product of its junior programme.
Webber was, of course, at the centre of similar theories when he was team-mates with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull between 2009 and 2013.
The Colombian believes that the lessons he learned from that time might be something that will translate into his own dealings with Piastri.
“I think they need to be careful and make sure that Webber’s scars from his time as a race car driver have nothing to do with Oscar’s career,” he said.
By contrast, McLaren CEO Zak Brown has stated that Piastri will win “multiple” titles with the team in the future.
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