McLaren quiet on possible switch between Australians Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo

After ditching one Australian F1 driver, McLaren are now expected to snap up a new one - but the British team are remaining quiet on the tantalising prospect of Oscar Piastri replacing Daniel Ricciardo.

After confirming Ricciardo will be leaving a year early at the end of the season after two disappointing campaigns, the British team are expected to announce his seat will be taken by his brilliant young compatriot Piastri from next season.

But amid potential legal complications, with French team Alpine still adamant they have a contract for their reserve driver Piastri to stay while the Melbourne youngster protests he won’t drive for them, everyone was still tiptoeing around the subject of the 21-year-old ‘fenom’ on Wednesday.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said the team was sure about its next move following the Ricciardo announcement but wouldn’t be announcing anything.

“We are obviously very confident in our future, which we will announce in due course,” he said.

Pressed about McLaren’s line-up for 2023, he would only joke: “It’ll definitely be confirmed before the first race of next year.”

Neither would McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl give anything away when asked about the possibility of a rookie like Piastri, who’s yet to race in F1 despite a glittering junior career that’s taken in F2 and F3 crowns, replacing an eight-time race winner like Ricciardo.

“I have no interest in going into this comparison at the moment,” he told reporters.

“Today it’s about Daniel, and throughout the weekend at Spa, it will be about Daniel.

“We want to move on. Daniel also wants to move on in terms of the topic we announced today. And regarding the future, it’s something we speak about afterwards.”

The Piastri situation has flared up since Fernando Alonso announced he was leaving Alpine for Aston Martin in 2023, prompting the French team to announce the Melbourne driver would be his replacement.

But Piastri refuted his team’s statement in a social media post, and insisted he would be racing elsewhere next season, with all the signs pointing to McLaren, who had clearly been unhappy with Ricciardo for months.

Any move by Piastri to McLaren would have to be cleared by the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board, amid arguments from Alpine that they hold a contract with him and from the youngster’s lawyers that he has an option to leave.

Meanwhile, former world champion Jacques Villeneuve has warned that Piastri may have been playing a “dangerous game” with his behaviour over his contract.

“It brings to your name into question that whenever a team or sponsor will sign a deal with you there will always be this question, ‘umm how will we be treated?’” Villeneuve told Reuters.

“What will happen when we trust this person? It’s a very dangerous game to play.”

Villeneuve also warned success was not guaranteed.

“There are so many drivers over the years who have been kings in every other form of racing and winning everything, then the minute they got to F1 they just couldn’t handle it because it is huge step up both in talent, pressure and mental ability.

“Piastri has been amazing all the way through but how is he in F1 we don’t know yet. That is the big question.”

With Reuters