Oscar Piastri and Zak Brown dismiss media report linking the Australian with Red Bull.

With speculation over Max Verstappen's future in F1, and thereby Red Bull, in doubt - though the Dutchman has now dismissed the claims - attention turned to who might take his place with the Austrian team.

According to Autosport, Oscar Piastri is the man set to fill the four-time world champion's seat.

"It's news to me, yes," replied the Australian when asked about the report. "There's obviously not been any discussions or anything, but it's flattering, and there's not really much more than that.

"Hopefully, it proves my stock as a driver, which is a nice thing," he added. "I've got a lot of confidence in this team that we are going to be able to win races and hopefully championships in the future, so I'm very happy where I am."

Meanwhile, despite a general feeling that Lando Norris is the 'favoured son' at McLaren, Zak Brown was also keen to dismiss the claim that Piastri could be Red Bull bound.

"I would imagine there's not a team on the grid that wouldn't want to have Oscar and Lando driving for them," he told The Athletic. "My general view, contracts aside, is that our job is to create an environment where our drivers don't want to drive anywhere else, or for that matter, our employees or our sponsors don't want to sponsor another team.

"My job, our job, is to create an environment where you go, 'Well, you've got a contract'. Yes, we have that anyways, for the record," he added.

"You don't want to hold someone because you've got a piece of paper, you want them to go, 'This is the team I want to race with, the team I want to be on, the team I want to be a mechanic on, the team I want to sponsor'," the American continued. "That's what I want to do, try and create that environment. I think there's a lot of talent inside McLaren that other racing teams would like to have.

"The first thing on your shopping list is the best drivers in the world," he added. "In all of our racing series, the number one goal is the best driver line-up that you can get. I wouldn't trade ours for any other combination on the grid."

Meanwhile, Piastri, whose season got off to the worst possible start - no pun intended - when he failed to make it to the grid for both of the opening races, insists that McLaren is the place to be, despite the ongoing rumours over the Woking outfit's preference for his teammate.

"Last year, or even just through the years, I think the trust and the proof of how we can take a car, and almost a team in some ways, that has potential and actually realise that potential, is more than enough for me to see just what this team is capable of," he told The Athletic.

"It's shown me that in the next few years, or the next however many years, that we're capable of staying at the front. We've got all of the pieces of the puzzle that we want and that we need, and now it's about trying to go out and execute and see how many championships we can win."