A twist in the paddock! While Alpine announced in an official press release on Tuesday the signing of young Oscar Piastri (21) for next season, the pilot published a tweet a few hours later to deny this assertion. After the announcement of Fernando Alonso’s surprise departure from Aston Martin, the Alpine team formalized, obviously without his consent, the name of the 41-year-old Spaniard’s replacement. Formula 2 world champion in 2021 and reserve driver for the French team this year, Oscar Piastri, whose name was recently mentioned on the side of McLaren, made it clear that he would not be driving for Alpine next season.
A few hours before this announcement from Alpine, Otmar Szafnauer had made it known, in an interview with L’Equipe, that the young Australian could hope to drive at Alpine from 2023. “Regarding Oscar, if everyone respects the terms of his contract, there should be no complicationssaid the Team Principal of the French formation. We are totally in a position to sign him, we have priority. We invested a lot in him, in particular allowing him to do several thousand kilometers with last year’s car… We did all that to prepare him and with the aim of making him a starter in the future. . Not so that he goes to another stable.”
When driving in Formula 2, the native of Melbourne had impressed his competitors and observers. Sacred in the antechamber of F1 last year with a 60-point lead, Oscar Piastri would have had the mission of making Fernando Alonso forget and competing with Esteban Ocon, currently eighth in the drivers’ classification with 17 points ahead of his Spanish teammate.
“Piastri is coming, he’s the next big thing in Formula 1”