September 4, 2022
Four days after the Contract Recognition Board met to review the Oscar Piastri situation, they reached a verdict. Oscar Piastri will be driving for McLaren in 2023 on a multi-year contract. This hearing gave us all of the details regarding the messy situation that put silly season into a frenzy, so here are some of the main points:
Piastri and McLaren’s relationship started way earlier than we thought. This year, Oscar Piastri decided to find another team that would give him an F1 seat for 2023. He felt that there was a lack of clarity about his future at Alpine and started to lose trust in the team, so instead sitting around and waiting for Alpine to promote him, Piastri went out and got himself a seat in F1. After McLaren decided they didn’t want Daniel Ricciardo on the team anymore, they turned to Piastri. Both parties were interested and by July 4, 2022, Oscar Piastri had signed a multi-year contract with McLaren for 2023-2024.
When Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement from F1, Fernando Alonso left Alpine to fill Vettel’s spot at Aston Martin. Alpine suddenly had a vacant spot in their driver lineup for 2023 and immediately announced that Piastri would drive for them. The thing was, Piastri had already signed the McLaren contract and he had already informed Alpine that he was leaving the team and would not be available for the 2023 season. This put Piastri in a bind and led to his firm tweet, disputing Alpine’s statement. Alpine started arguing that Piastri violated his contract with the team by signing with McLaren and the CRB had to get involved. This brings us to the present day, where the CRB ruling said that Piastri’s actions were legal and within the rights of his contract, meaning that Piastri is free to drive for McLaren in 2023.
With Piastri out of the picture, Alpine needs to find themselves another driver. There are rumors that Pierre Gasly might be released from AlphaTauri a year early to join Alpine for 2023 and give the French team an all French lineup. Some people are also saying Daniel Ricciardo could go back to the French team (he spent two years there before going to McLaren), but I don’t think that will happen. My hope is that Mick Schumacher will get the Alpine seat and Ricciardo will replace him at Haas, allowing Yuki and Pierre to stay best friends at AlphaTauri. Nevertheless, there are many people interested in the Alpine seat, so they shouldn’t have a hard time filling it.
Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon, has said that he wants Mick Schumacher as his teammate for next year. He said their friendship and Schumacher’s talent would suit the team and that they could both perform really well in Alpine’s competitive car. It seems like Esteban Ocon and I think alike. Ocon also made it clear that he doesn’t mind working with others, such as Gasly, and that his main focus will be on leading the team through this transitional phase to make them the best they can be.
Where I got these
from: