Oscar Piastri's new deal with McLaren is a massive show of faith in a driver only three quarters of the way through his first season in the sport.
Piastri originally signed a two-year deal for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, but the team announced late Wednesday he had signed a two-year extension that will keep him in the car until the end of 2026.
Only Max Verstappen, who is all but certain to win his third-straight world title and is tied to Red Bull until the end of 2028, has a longer contract.
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The new deal takes Piastri's name off the table ahead of what is set to be a series of busy silly-seasons involving the top teams in the lead up to a massive shake up of the engine rules to be introduced for the 2026 season.
It will also no doubt come with a substantial pay rise.
Several drivers at the front of the field, including Piastri's teammate Lando Norris and the Mercedes pairing of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, are off-contract at the end of 2025.
The Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are both off-contract at the end of next season, as is Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, although speculation continues to mount he could be let go a year early. More on that later.
Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas is on an unspecified 'multi-year' deal, believed also to be until the end of 2025 when the team will become a fully-fledged Audi factory team.
At Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso is another on a multi-year deal, believed to be a '2+1' – an initial two years with the option for a third. Taking that option will also see him in the seat until 2025.
So given all that, McLaren signing Piastri, who has only 15 grands prix under his belt, is an indication just how highly they rate the 22-year-old Melbournian.
He won the junior F3 and F2 championships in back-to-back years while bankrolled by the Alpine squad, from which his shambolic split is well-documented.
Right from his first day in the McLaren simulator, engineers have sung his praises for his detailed feedback and his ability to drive in a manner that ensures the data gathered was as good as possible.
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The first year
After a nightmare start to the year for the whole team, Piastri survived the late-race chaos at his home race in Melbourne to secure his maiden points finish, before again scoring in Monaco.
When the team bolted on some brand new updates on the car for their home race at July's British Grand Prix, Piastri announced his arrival in F1 properly by qualifying third.
He was on course for his maiden podium before an ill-timed safety car allowed Lewis Hamilton to jump him with a cheap pitstop.
He finished fourth, and has been towards the front of the midfield ever since.
Piastri backed up his fourth at Silverstone with a fifth in Hungary. In Belgium he led his first laps in the sport during Saturday afternoon's sprint on his way to second. Earlier in the day he'd missed pole for the 100km race by just 0.011 of a second.
His Sunday afternoon was ended at the first corner when he drove into a gap that was always going to close and clipped the inside wall. It broke his front suspension and he was out on the spot.
That was just a reminder he's still only young. To make an omelette, first you must crack some eggs.
On to Monza – the scene of McLaren's most recent win with Daniel Ricciardo in 2021 – he was again on for a strong haul of points when he was taken out by Hamilton.
It would be remiss though to not mention the lucky escape he had earlier in the race though when he drove into Norris' sidepod, for which he was rightly given a stern telling-off.
At Singapore, Piastri was well up on the time required to progress into the second part of qualifying when Lance Stroll had his monster crash.
Starting from 17th, Piastri jumped three spots on the opening lap to run in 14th until a lap-20 safety car saw the entire field dive into the pits. The quick work of his McLaren mechanics got him out ahead of Liam Lawson to 13th.
The team didn't pit him under the virtual safety car to fetch Esteban Ocon's cooked Alpine, and he then drove superbly to nurse his ageing tyres to seventh at the flag.
Norris was second, but their two cars were of a different specs. Norris had some new upgrades, Piastri did not.
So while the gap in the championship to Norris is 55 points, it's not unrealistic to say it should be smaller, especially given the extenuating circumstances.
Team leader
It's performances like his Sunday in Singapore that give a team confidence Piastri can perform and lead a team.
And he might be called upon to do just that sooner, rather than later.
Despite McLaren's incredible overnight turnaround in performance, his teammate Lando Norris had been linked to Sergio Perez' seat at Red Bull for next season.
The rumour mill went into overdrive in the Monza paddock when Norris said he would be open to teaming up with Verstappen – with whom he is close friends – in the future.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown poured cold water on the suggestion, and Norris is contracted at Woking until the end of 2025, but in F1, money talks.
The Austrian energy drink manufacturer would surely have no qualms about spending a few million pounds in buying Norris out of his contract.
Should that happen, Piastri would surely become the de facto No.1 driver. Considering McLaren would have few options for top drivers – unless they did a straight swap with Perez – it would be an incredible task thrust upon someone as young as Piastri, who would still be only 22 at the start of next season.
The bottom line is this monster deal is a massive stocks-up for Piastri.
Props should also go to his manager, former grand prix winner Mark Webber, for finding an opening at McLaren in the first place, even at the expense of Ricciardo.
The upgrades that were on Norris' car for the Singapore race will also be on Piastri's for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.
The Suzuka circuit was already tipped to favour the McLaren chassis, and so they will be hopeful of another strong showing as they chase down Aston Martin for fourth in the Constructors Championship.
Practice gets underway on Friday afternoon, before lights out on the grand prix at 3pm Sunday (AEST).
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