Oscar Piastri to Ferrari? Not now, not with this scoreboard
McLaren walked out of Singapore with bruises on both papaya cars and egos, and that’s always a gift to the rumour mill. A Turn 3 elbow from Lando Norris on Oscar Piastri, some terse radio from the Australian, and suddenly a report out of Switzerland has Piastri eyeing Maranello for 2027. It reads neatly. It doesn’t add up.
Yes, Swiss outlet Blick has suggested Piastri could be tempted by Ferrari when the next driver-market carousel spins up. The logic is obvious enough: Ferrari’s 2025 line-up of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc is A-list, but what happens beyond the 2026 reset? Does Hamilton carry on? Does Leclerc fancy a different challenge? When there’s even a hint of uncertainty at Ferrari, the sport’s form driver will get linked. That’s how this game works.
But strip away the noise and look at the present tense. Piastri is leading the championship and McLaren’s title defence on the constructors’ side has been so robust they’ve wrapped it up with a chunk of the calendar still to run. He also put pen to paper in March on a deal that runs through the end of 2028. You don’t ink that length of commitment if you’re shopping for red overalls two seasons from now.
The backdrop, of course, is the spice that keeps this story alive. Monza saw McLaren call it square after Norris was delayed by a slow stop: Norris ceded track position to Piastri for the undercut, Piastri later yielded him back. Fair is fair. In Singapore, the pendulum didn’t swing back the way Oscar expected after Norris forced his way through early on. Cue the radio sting — “That’s not fair, I’m sorry, that’s not fair” — and a week of fanbase trench warfare about team favourites.
That kind of flashpoint invites grand narratives. McLaren has a title on the line with two drivers, and these are the messy weekends that come with it. But making it a catalyst for a Ferrari switch? That’s a leap.
There’s a bigger, blunter truth at play: 2026 changes everything. New chassis and power unit regulations are coming, and no driver, engineer or pundit can tell you with certainty who nails that rulebook. Maybe Ferrari lights it up. Maybe McLaren carries its momentum. Maybe someone else sneaks through the gap. Talking about “the right seat for 2027” before those cars turn a wheel is like picking a winner before qualifying’s even started.
Ferrari, for what it’s worth, is set for 2025 with Hamilton and Leclerc. McLaren is locked with Norris and Piastri. Those are the facts on the grid, not whispers in the paddock club. The rest is speculative filler until we see how the 2026 baseline shakes out.
And then there’s the contract. Piastri’s deal runs to 2028. If there’s a performance-related mechanism buried in there — and that’s a big if — it’s only relevant if McLaren whiffs on the new regs. Right now, with silverware piling up and Piastri leading Norris by 22 points, it’s not a conversation anyone inside Woking needs to entertain.
Will the talk go away? Of course not. When you’re the hottest property in the drivers’ market, you get stapled to any seat that might open. A year ago it was Red Bull. This week it’s Ferrari. Next month it’ll be something else. That’s the tax on being quick.
What matters more than the gossip is how McLaren manages the here and now. Two title contenders in the same garage is motorsport’s most delicate ecosystem. You’ve got to referee hard but fair, and you can’t let the temperature spike into something that costs you points on Sunday. Singapore was a warning shot, not a divorce filing.
Piastri has the speed, the calm and the contract. McLaren has the car, the points and the headache every team actually wants: which of its two drivers to back, and when. Ferrari? That’s a tomorrow problem — and tomorrow in F1 looks a lot like 2026. Until then, the red seats will keep getting linked to the man in papaya. And he’ll keep trying to make those links look silly on the stopwatch.
