The Alpine Formula 1 team have entered into a very public dispute with Oscar Piastri, their future replacement for Fernando Alonso next season. The team announced on Tuesday afternoon that Piastri would replace Alonso, only for the Australian driver to issue his own statement denying he would drive for Alpine as the dispute now goes into the hands of lawyers.
Two-time world champion Alonso took Alpine for granted when he made a surprise announcement on Monday that he was leaving to join Aston Martin, which the French team admitted had taken them completely by surprise. Until Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso had assured them that he was close to agreeing a new deal.
After the Spaniard made his decision to join Aston Martin clear, Alpine moved quickly to confirm that it would exercise its contract with 21-year-old Piastri, who is the team’s reserve driver . They said on Tuesday that he would join them in 2023.
The statement, however, did not include any comment from the Australian who is understood to have been in discussions to join McLaren. When Piastri, in Australia, woke up a few hours later, he quickly denied any intention of racing for Alpine, posting on Twitter: “I understand that without my consent, Alpine F1 has issued a press release this afternoon that I drive for Alpine. them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not drive for Alpine next year.”
Alpine manager Otmar Szafnauer insisted Piastri had a commitment to his team. “I know he has contractual obligations with us and we do with him. We have been fulfilling those obligations all year,” he said. However, he acknowledged that communication between the team and Piastri had already broken down. “Oscar and his camp are ‘thinking about their options’ , whatever that means,” he added.
With Alonso expected to remain at Alpine next year, Piastri and his manager, former driver Mark Webber, are understood to have been working on a deal for him to replace Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren next year.
Piastri is a huge talent and has been part of the Alpine driver academy since 2020. He won the F3 and F2 titles in 2020 and 2021 and has been a reserve driver for both Alpine and McLaren this year. The latter have not yet commented on any agreement with Piastri.