Alpine has confirmed junior driver Oscar Piastri will replace Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso for the 2023 Formula One season, although confusion still surrounds the Australian driver’s immediate future.
The French team said it has handed the drive to the reigning Formula Two champion “in line with the commitments made by the team” to him after four years in its driver academy.
Curiously, the press release did not come with a quote from the Australian, who did not tweet about the news either, raising some doubt about whether his promotion is set in stone.
Multiple sources have told ESPN the Australian had also signed a pre-contract with McLaren, which has Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris both under contract for next season.
It appears Piastri and his manager, ex-F1 driver Mark Webber, signed the contract before Sebastian Vettel’s retirement announcement last week blew the driver market wide open and when it appeared as if Alonso signing an extension with Alpine for at least another year was a formality.
One source told ESPN the Piastri deal is for him to be reserve in 2023 and then to replace fellow Australian Ricciardo in 2024, although it seems unlikely he will be able to get out of his Alpine contract if the team has a legal option on his services that was signed much earlier.
McLaren does not have options to terminate Ricciardo’s deal early without heavy financial consequences.
Ricciardo does have exit clauses on his side of the deal, but Alpine’s first priority appears to be ensuring Piastri is racing for the team next season.
If McLaren does pursue Piastri, Ricciardo would be a strong candidate to return to Alpine — the eight-time race winner drove at the team when it was known as Renault in 2019 and 2020 — although he has consistently reaffirmed his commitment to stay with McLaren and put his poor patch of form behind him.
Piastri was linked to Nicholas Latifi’s Williams seat earlier this year but that came to nothing.
Piastri is one of the best rated drivers not in F1 at present. He won Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, Formula 3 in 2020 and Formula 2 in 2021.
Alonso’s decision to replace the retiring Vettel at Aston Martin next season took Alpine by complete surprise.
Senior management only found out about the move through the press release Aston Martin sent out on Monday.
Alonso left the Hungarian Grand Prix after assuring Alpine he would be signing a one-year extension with an option for 2024.