McLaren may already have a ‘special’ back-up plan if they lose Oscar Piastri next year

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Oscar Piastri could very well be watching McLaren teammate Lando Norris celebrate his first Formula 1 world championship in Abu Dhabi on Sunday evening.

Juan Pablo Montoya has already predicted that Piastri will leave McLaren before 2027 if he loses out in this year’s title fight. The only way they can keep the Australian in that scenario, he says, is to build a dominant package for the new regulations.

On performance alone, Piastri has little reason to look elsewhere. The iconic McLaren team have won the last two championships and are the strongest they’ve been at any point in the 21st century.

Finish the sentence: In 2027, Oscar Piastri will be driving for…

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But there are those who believe Piastri has lost confidence in McLaren during the second half of the season, a period where he has fallen from firm title favourite to distinct outsider.

James Allen thinks McLaren are hedging their bets by signing Leonardo Fornaroli

James Allen thinks it’s significant that McLaren have just signed Leonardo Fornaroli, the newly-crowned Formula 2 champion. Like Piastri, George Russell and Charles Leclerc, Fornaroli won the F2 and F3 titles in back-to-back years.

That marks him out as a ‘huge talent’. Piastri didn’t make it onto the 2022 grid after winning the F2 title but, after McLaren prised him away from Alpine, he got his chance for 2023.

Should he leave, then McLaren may already have an exciting succession plan. They wouldn’t necessarily have to enter the market for another star driver.

Oscar Piastri could become the first F1 driver to finish third in a championship with five or more wins

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Allen said on his podcast: “I thought that it was extremely interesting that, just a few days before the final race, McLaren announced that they’ve signed Leonardo Fornaroli, who is, like Piastri, like Leclerc, a driver who won Formula 3 as a rookie and then went straight on and won Formula 2 as a rookie.

“Only special drivers do that. Fornaroli’s gone a little bit under the radar for a lot of people, but he’s obviously a huge talent.

“That says to me that, first of all, it’s a hedge against Piastri leaving at the end of 2026. They’ve got the next cab off the rank, ready to go.”

What Formula 2 ‘insiders’ are saying about Leonardo Fornaroli

Piastri is under contract until the end of 2028 after signing a new deal just before the season started. However, the belief is that most top drivers, if not all of them, can activate exit clauses after the 2026 regulation changes.

Fornaroli has gone ‘massively under the radar’, to quote Autosport journalist Ronald Vording, but it’s unlikely he would have joined McLaren if he believed an F1 seat was out of the question.

The Italian has won four races and scored nine podiums this year for the Invicta team, who also fielded 2024 champion and former McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto.

“McLaren had a great chance to sign him, and at least have a back-up plan, a plan b if Piastri leaves at the end of 2026,” said Vording.

“He has gone massively under the radar, partly because insiders say engines in Formula 2 are quite difficult to judge. Invicta is probably the best team to drive for, but still, it’s not a coincidence to win F3 and F2 in your first year.”