Photo: Alpine F1 Team
Oscar Piastri says Alpine’s announcement that he will race for the team in Formula 1 was published without permission, and that he has not signed a deal to do so.
Fernando Alonso announced on the Monday after the Hungarian Grand Prix that he would leave Alpine at the end of 2022 to join Aston Martin, and Alpine started by Tuesday by saying it knew its reserve driver Piastri could also leave the team.
Piastri’s manager Mark Webber had sought talks with McLaren, who Piastri has also been made available to as a reserve driver this year, and a few hours after its aknowledgment of that Alpine then announced Piastri would race for it in 2023.
Alpine announced the news via Twitter and its press release was then issued without a quote from Piastri, who along with manager Webber had been unavailable for comment that morning, and on Tuesday evening Piastri took to Twitter.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year,” Piastri said.
“This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”
The reigning Formula 2 champion has been with Alpine since 2020, when he was signed as a junior driver for Renault after winning the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup. He won the FIA Formula 3 Championship as a rookie in 2020 and stepped up to F2 last year while also embarking on an F1 test programme with the rebranded Alpine team.
His F2 title triumph meant he couldn’t return to the series this year, but Alpine failed to find him a place on the F1 grid and its own line-up was already full, so he has acted as reserve driver through 2022.