Oscar Piastri warned against potential shock McLaren exit

Oscar Piastri has been warned against seeking a potential exit from McLaren if he wants to win world championships.

The Australian finished third in the 2025 standings after leading for 15 of the 24 rounds before a late wobble in the autumn handed team-mate Lando Norris an advantage.

Norris secured the title in the Abu Dhabi finale, with Max Verstappen beating Piastri into third place, in just his third full season of grand prix racing. 

Piastri is under a long-term contract to McLaren, having signed in 2023 and help guide the team from backmarkers to back-to-back constructors' champions. 

The Woking team is expected to be one of the leading contenders once again through F1's huge rule changes in 2026, with three-time grand prix winner Johnny Herbert believing that a move away from McLaren could be dangerous for Piastri to fulfil his potential as an F1 world champion. 

"Oscar has got all the ingredients to be a world champion for sure," Herbert told NewBettingSites.UK. 

"There were those races where he wasn't there and went missing. If he had this mental strength that everybody talks about, that would not have come into play.

“He was in a car that was able to achieve those race wins. It's a sign, and I am sure Mark Webber is onto this, that he needs to make sure that does not happen again.

"At this moment in time, I can see Oscar looking to move on from McLaren. As things stand, he may feel so frustrated that he wants to look elsewhere.

"But why would you want to move on from a team that actually can supply you with the car to win the World Drivers' Championship?

"If he moved to Ferrari, for example, there is no guarantee at all that you're going to get a chance of being world champion. If he moved to Mercedes, there's no guarantee. The team that's in the moment is McLaren and arguably Red Bull.

"Those are the only places that you're probably going to be able to get a World Championship, but one of them has Max in the seat.

“But would he want to go into that environment? Is he at a stage in his career where he needs to do a risky move like that? 

"For Oscar, he's there, and it's basically on his plate, or it's on both of their plates."