When the whole puzzle of the Alpine team seemed to have ended when the signing of Oscar Piastri was announced just one day after the departure of Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin, the Australian driver himself denied having signed a contract with the French team through a publication on your social networks.
During the afternoon of Tuesday, the Enstone team released a statement confirming the promotion of the young protégé of his academy to Formula 1, but only a few hours later, Piastri himself denied it in a story on his Instagram account and on his Twitter profile.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine have issued a press release in the late afternoon saying that I will be driving for them next year,” Piastri wrote. “This is wrong, and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I am not driving for Alpine next year.”
The French team confirmed by surprise that the young Australian would be the substitute for Fernando Alonso from 2023, at midnight in his native country, so it seemed that he would not make a statement until the next morning.
Doubts about the signing began when Alpine’s own statement did not appear in any statement from Piastri, who was exploring other offers, as the director of the French team, Otmar Szafnauer , explained.
The head of the Enstone team was the only one who appeared in the publication sent to the press, and in it he was happy to be able to count on the academy driver, who was the only one, along with Charles Leclerc and George Russell, to harvest in a way consecutive Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles.
Prior to Alonso’s decision to move to Aston Martin, it seemed unlikely that Piastri would end up at Alpine, as the driver’s manager, Mark Webber, had been working to get him a seat at McLaren.
That would have left his compatriot, Daniel Ricciardo, without the steering wheel of the Woking team, and the fact is that the one from Perth has been heavily criticized since his arrival for the lack of results.
Alpine claimed that, with the Oviedo’s departure, they had the contractual right to put Piastri in his place for the 2023 season , as was originally the case. However, everything indicates that stormy times will come in Enstone and it is likely that they will star in a legal battle that will animate the ‘ Silly Season ‘.
McLaren has not yet commented on the matter, something that the French have not done either about the comments of the driver they wanted to sign.
