Alpine announces Óscar Piastri as a replacement for Fernando Alonso

Óscar Piastri signs autographs during the French GP. AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)

Three of the most anticipated operations in the

of Formula 1 with a view to the season materialized in less than a week.

On Thursday it was Sebastian Vettel who unexpectedly announced his retirement once he crossed the finish line of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last stop on the calendar.

At the same time, the decision of the four-time world champion (2010-2013) created a gap in Aston Martin, his current team, which moved quickly and in a matter of hours threw the tie at Fernando Alonso.

At 41 years old, the Spaniard was upset with Alpine because the French team, the armed arm of Renault, with whom he was crowned two-time world champion in the mid-2000s, was not willing to agree to his requests, nor to those related to the duration of the contract – he wanted two years and the team offered him one – nor to his emoluments, above 15 million euros.

This Tuesday morning, Otmar Szafnauer, director of Alpine, declared that the news of Alonso's hiring by Aston Martin caught him by surprise, given that the last conversation with the Oviedo, at the end of the last Grand Prix, on Sunday past, in Hungary, led him to assume that both parties would reach an understanding to expand their alliance.

“The [Aston Martin] announcement was the first confirmation I had.

Obviously, in the

you hear rumors of all kinds, and some pointed to a hypothetical interest of Aston.

I asked him and he told me that he had not signed anything, ”commented the executive, in a statement made to Autosport.

In the afternoon, the structure based in Enstone made a move, in a note in which it named Oscar Piastri as a substitute for the Oviedo player for 2023. The 21-year-old Australian is the current Formula 2 champion, in which he He imposed as a rookie in the same way that he did the previous year (2020) with Formula 2, also in his first experience in the championship.

Piastri is part of Alpine's rider training program, which always considered him an option as Esteban Ocon's teammate, in case the dialogue with Alonso did not flow, as it ended up happening.

The Melbourne boy's agent is Mark Webber, who had recently moved to seek accommodation for his pupil, and who explored a possible entry into McLaren, by Daniel Ricciardo, and a possible transfer to Williams.

“Oscar is a brilliant and rare talent.

We are proud to have nurtured and supported it through the ever-complicated promotional formulas,” Szafnauer says in the welcome message.

"Over the last four years we have seen him develop and mature into a driver more than capable of making the leap to F1," added the Alpine manager.

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