When Otmar Szafnauer was asked in Montreal whether the team’s Formula 1-ready junior driver – 21-year-old Australian Oscar Piastri – would graduate to the series next year, the Alpine team principal answered with a single word: “Yes.”
From European Formula Renault champion in 2019 to FIA Formula 3 champion in his rookie season in 2020 before taking the Formula 2 crown at his first attempt last season, Piastri could not have made a case for a race drive in Formula 1. However there was simply no room for the Alpine junior driver in the team’s ranks for 2022.
Having Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon already contracted and both performing to a decent level not only meant Piastri would fail to get a look in for 2022, it was difficult to see a route to a race seat in Alpine blue for the rookie in the medium-term. With Alonso showing no intention of stopping and continuing to demonstrate his remarkable racing prowess on Sundays, surely a contract extension into next season and beyond was an inevitability?
So it seemed until the morning after the Hungarian Grand Prix. Aston Martin’s out-of-the-blue announcement that they had secured the double world champion’s services from 2023 and beyond was stunning not just for the prospect of Alonso in British Racing Green but the implications his departure from Enstone will have.
Suddenly, the vacancy that was at Aston Martin has now shifted to Alpine. The team has said it will “announce its driver line-up for the 2023 Formula 1 season in due course”. The question now becomes who will race alongside Ocon next year?
The most obvious solution would be for Alpine to promote their junior into an overdue spot on the grid. Especially given how proactive Alpine have been about keeping their prospect primed and ready to step into a race seat whenever needed during his year away from racing.
Like McLaren and Ferrari, Alpine have made use of the Testing With Previous Cars (TPC) protocols outlined in the sporting regulations to give Piastri and fellow junior Jack Doohan runs out in last year’s A521. Multi-day tests in the 2021 car at Losail International Circuit, Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring in Austria are the best possible way for Alpine to keep him ripe and ready to take over a race seat without having lost any momentum from his Formula 2 championship triumph.
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