Oscar Piastri’s manager Mark Webber has dismissed as fiction lingering reports suggesting that McLaren’s Australian ‌driver might swap places with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Four-times world ‌champion Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has already signed a ‌deal to join McLaren when his contract allows, by 2028 at the latest, and the Dutch driver has been unhappy with Red Bull’s performance.

Verstappen is known to have a ‌break clause ‌in his ⁠contract and continues to be linked ​in media speculation to McLaren, despite them saying they are happy with the current pairing of Piastri and world champion Lando Norris.

“I’ve got a contract in place, multiple reassurances that ⁠the team are very happy ‌with ​me and I’m very happy with the team,” Piastri ​said at last ‌weekend’s British Grand Prix.

Verstappen crashed out of that race ​and said his car’s rear wing was “super-dangerous”, with the incident further fuelling speculation about a rift within ​the ​team.

Webber told Racer.com that ​Piastri was contracted to McLaren “for ‌the foreseeable future”.

“Talk of him agitating to leave is nonsense,” said the former F1 driver.

“There has been a lot of fiction written about him and other teams… McLaren ​have repeatedly said they want him for the long ​term and Oscar ⁠is focused on that.”