Piastri denies he will replace Alonso
Oscar Piastri says he will not replace Fernando Alonso at Alpine next season after the team said he would. Earlier this week, the French manufacturer said the twenty-one-year-old would race “in line with the commitments made by the team to the young Australian”.
But Piastri then tweeted that he had “not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023 and will not be driving for them next year”. He said the announcement was “wrong” and had come “without my agreement”.
Later on Tuesday, an Alpine spokesperson said in response: “We believe we are legally correct in our statement but don’t have anything further to say.” The dispute comes at the end of a turbulent week sparked by Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel who announced his retirement in Budapest.
Alpine left the Hungarian Grand Prix believing they were close to an agreement with two-time world champion Alonso to continue with them in 2023 and were trying to place Piastri at Williams on a temporary basis.
But on Monday morning, Aston Martin announced they had signed Alonso, Alpine’s most competitive driver this year, to a “multi-year contract”. The following morning Alpine team announced principal Otmar Szafnauer held a news conference in which he admitted that Alonso’s announcement had surprised the team, and that it had been a result of a disagreement with the 41-year-old Spaniard over the length of the contract.
It appears that Alpine was offering only a one-year deal with an option for 2024, while Alonso wanted a guarantee he would race for at least two years, Szafnauer said, confirming information widely known within F1.
Szafnauer told reporters he was unable to confirm Piastri would race, despite having “contractual obligations”. But then Alpine put out a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying Piastri would race after all.
However, the fact that there was no quote from Piastri in the media release fuelled suspicions that Alpine had acted unilaterally. Piastri, 21, is known to have had conversations with McLaren in recent weeks.
Szafnauer had admitted that Piastri’s unwillingness to drive for Williams was “a consideration” and said he was “not privy to whatever pre-arrangement [Piastri] has with McLaren, if any any all”. The McLaren link also raises again questions about Daniel Ricciardo’s future.
In June, chief executive officer Zak Brown admitted his time with the team had not met expectations. On 13th July, Ricciardo released a statement insisting he was committed to F1 and determined to stay with McLaren to the end of his contract next year.
Szafnauer also said he had been having problems getting in touch with Piastri’s manager, the former F1 driver Mark Webber, adding: “Oscar and his camp are ‘considering their options’, whatever that means.” Asked whether they had since spoken to Webber, a spokesperson for Alpine said there was “contact as appropriate”.
Alpine adamant Piastri contract ‘watertight’
Alpine remains adamant that its contract with Oscar Piastri for 2023 is legally watertight, despite the Australian insisting he will drive for the Enstone team. Following Fernando Alonso’s shock decision to sign for Aston Martin for next year, the Alpine squad moved quickly to take up a contract that it believes it has with its reserve driver Piastri.
It announced the deal on Tuesday afternoon, the day after it discovered that Alonso would be leaving at the end of the campaign. However, a few hours after Alpine’s announcement, Piastri took to social media to insist that he had not signed anything with the team and would not be racing for it in 2023.
It is understood that his comments come in the wake of a push that Piastri and his management have made to secure a seat at McLaren for next year. That could mean a pre-contract could be in place and the French manufacturer’s option could have lapsed on Sunday.
It is widely understood that as part of his long-term deal with Alpine, it needed to guarantee Piastri an F1 race seat for 2023 by a certain date if he was to stay under contract. Key to the matter now will be whether such a date came into play and there was a window where Alpine’s rights lapsed.
This could see the row end up and be settled by Formula 1’s Contracts Recognition Board. The body made up of independent lawyers will then read through the terms of the contracts that Piastri has and determine who has rights to him for next year.
Ferrari says “nothing to change” despite slip-ups
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes there is “nothing to change” at the team over the summer break despite its recent struggles and slip-ups against Red Bull. Another mistake on strategy in Budapest lost Charles Leclerc the chance of victory and Ferrari dropped him ninety-seven points behind Red Bull.
Leclerc was leading halfway through the race but faded to sixth after a switch to the hard compound tyre backfired and saw his pace nosedive. Teammate Carlos Sainz also fell out of contention for victory, eventually finishing fourth as Ferrari lamented its struggles for pace in cooler conditions.
It marked the latest race where Ferrari’s strategy calls have come into the spotlight, but team principal Binotto denied there was a need for changes at Maranello. The Italian told Motorsport.com, “It’s not a matter of bad luck, and there is nothing to change as well. It’s always a matter of continuous learning and building, building experience, building skills.
“Today [Sunday], certainly there is something that you need to look at and understand why. But if I look again at the balance of the first half of the season, there is no reason why we should change. I think we simply need to address what was wrong today, we need to understand, and then to address.”
Binotto has already said that Ferrari did not have the pace to win in Hungary regardless of its strategy calls, but Leclerc was left baffled by the call to fit hards. The Monacan eventually finished sixth after Ferrari made a third stop meaning his points deficit grew to eighty points.
Binotto was confident that Leclerc would be able to “rest and relax to come back even more hungry” after the summer break, helping push Ferrari forward and recover from its recent run of form.
Binotto said, “As a leader as he is [key] to continue building, building for the team and building for himself step by step, and I think to look at each single race as an opportunity to win,”
“We are winning and losing altogether. Today it has not been a great one but I think there is still much potential and a lot of potential. We need to focus first to understand the reasons of today, address them, and come back even stronger.”
Williams announces multi-year Albon deal
Alex Albon will remain with Williams next year after signing a multi-year deal. Albon has spearheaded Williams’ efforts since making his full-time return to F1 with the team this season, scoring all three of its points in 2022.
After Red Bull signed Sergio Perez on a two-year deal in June the deal seemed a formality as the Austrian team extended the Mexican’s contract. Although Red Bull is known to have ‘future options’ over Albon’s services for the future, but Sergio Perez has now been locked in alongside Max Verstappen until the end of 2024.
Albon, who returned after a year out as Red Bull’s reserve, said “It’s really exciting to be staying with Williams Racing for 2023 and I look forward to seeing what we can achieve as a team in the remainder of this season and next year. The team is pushing hard to progress, and I am really motivated to continue this journey and further develop our learnings together.”
The British-Thai driver has scored all three of Williams’s points this year with tenth in Melbourne and ninth in Miami.
Confirmation of Albon at Williams comes after a flurry of announcements in the F1 driver market for next year, triggered by Sebastian Vettel’s decision to retire at the end of the season. Williams CEO and team principal Jost Capito, “Alex is a tremendous driver and valued member of Williams Racing, so we’re thrilled to be able to confirm we will be working with him on a long-term basis,” said
“Alex brings a great blend of skill and insightful learnings that will help bring the team greater success in the future. He’s a fierce competitor, has proved a popular and loyal team member and we are delighted that he will provide a stable base for us to continue to develop in this new F1 car era.”
The drama over the last week was prompted by Sebastian Vettel announcing his retirement, opening his seat up at Aston Martin for Fernando Alonso to make a shock switch from Alpine, who subsequently claimed Oscar Piastri would be stepping up as his replacement.
But Piastri has since issued a statement denying he has signed a contract and that he will be racing for Alpine next year. He is understood to have agreed to a deal with McLaren. Piastri was widely expected to partner Albon at Williams next year, replacing Nicholas Latifi as a loan signing from Alpine, only for his management to baulk at the idea of placing him at the British squad.
With the contractual wrangling set to continue for Piastri between Alpine and McLaren, Williams’ focus will switch to finding Albon a teammate for 2023.
Jokingly, given the Piastri situation, Albon tweeted, “I understand that, with my agreement, Williams Racing have put out a press release this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is right and I have signed a contract with Williams for 2023. I will be driving for Williams next year.”
“Huge” result for Mercedes in Budapest
Lewis Hamilton says beating both Ferrari cars was a “huge” result for Mercedes in Hungary given its struggles to compete so far this year. Despite struggling in practice Mercedes showed signs of progress in qualifying when George Russell took a maiden pole, but Hamilton feels his DRS issue prevented him challenging for pole.
Ferrari proved quicker through the first half of the race, allowing Charles Leclerc to leapfrog Russell for the lead, only for its pace to nosedive upon switching Leclerc to hard tyres.
Leclerc ended up finishing sixth, while teammate Carlos Sainz also faded to fourth in the final stint despite running softs. Sainz crossed the line seven seconds behind Hamilton, who ran the same strategy to second place. Hamilton was joined on the podium by Russell in third place, marking Mercedes’ second straight double-podium finish.
Hamilton said the result was “hugely satisfying” given Mercedes’ struggles this year and his own setbacks in Hungary through practice and qualifying. He said after the race, “It’s a great feeling for us, given the year we’ve had, and obviously to see the progress that we’ve started to make. Last week [in France], just getting the second place last week was huge for us already.”
“This is now two races in a row that George and I have shared a podium, which is fantastic for the team, points-wise. To both finish ahead of the Ferraris is huge for us, given the pace that they’ve had. And for me, obviously, starting the race in seventh and getting up here is a great recovery.”
This season the eight-time constructor’s champions have struggled to the new aerodynamic regulations in place for the 2022 season, causing it to slip behind Red Bull and Ferrari in the F1 pecking order.
The Mercedes W13 car was blighted by porpoising through the early part of the year, but the team has worked hard to curb it and allow its drivers to unlock more performance from the package. The result in Budapest allowed Mercedes to close the gap to Ferrari to thirty points in the constructors, and two podiums behind Ferrari.
Although Russell admitted to some disappointment after slipping from pole to third in the race, he felt the result was fair given Mercedes’ pace and strategy in Hungary. Russell said, “Obviously if you start from pole, to finish anything lower than first position, you’ll be disappointed with. But when you look at everything objectively, I think that was probably a fair result.”
FIA to finalise stricter F1 roll hoops tests
The FIA is set to finalise plans for stricter roll hoop tests for 2023 cars in a meeting with team technical directors on Wednesday. Following Guanyu Zhou’s crash at Silverstone last month, the sports governing body has promised to impose stricter tests as a direct result o Guanyu Zhou’s accident at the British Grand Prix, which saw the Chinese driver’s Alfa Romeo roll hoop fail after contact with the track with a force that exceeded anything that had previously been foreseen.
Since the accident Alfa Romeo has been working with the FIA, who will discuss it at a specially convened meeting of the FIA technical advisory committee led by head of single-seater matters Nikolas Tombazis. One possible outcome could be a move away from the “spike” hoop design that hitherto the rules allowed. Alfa Romeo is the only team using it in 2022.
Any rule changes have to be confirmed as soon as possible to allow teams sufficient time to ensure that their 2023 chassis designs comply with the stricter tests. One complication could be that some teams have been considering carrying over their 2022 chassis as a cost-saving measure, and they will now have to adapt.
Speaking to Autosport, Alfa Romeo technical director Jan Monchaux confirmed the Swiss outfit has been cooperating closely with the FIA. When asked by Autosport about progress, he said “The analysis is still ongoing, we’re working since the first day with the FIA to try to reconstruct the accident and assess as best as we can.
“Because it’s not an easy task, the force involved. As yet the internal investigations are not completely finished, so I won’t disclose anything. And if someone will disclose something, it’s going to be the FIA. In between, the FIA has asked all the teams to provide feedback, imposing several load cases on their respective roll hoops to understand potentially where there’s room for improvement in effect.”
He explained that the load test where you need to apply a force on the front and on the rear of your roll hoop, may not the most adequate for the kind of accident where the car slides. Monchaux is expecting that the governing body will come back before Spa with some new recommendations, additional tests.
