Thunderbolt on the paddock at the start of the week when the Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Alpine), double world champion with Renault in 2005 and 2006, announced that he was leaving the French team to join Aston Martin, instead of Sebastian Vettel.
A surprising decision that leaves Alpine in a delicate situation at mid-season: the bosses of the blue arrows must look for the successor of the Taurus of Asturias.
To discover
Formula 1: the calendar for the 2022 season
Formula 1: manufacturers' classification
Formula 1: drivers classification
Oscar Piastri, the reservist nugget
The man of all records, the Australian rough diamond, the nugget of the Renault Academy... Nicknames are lacking to describe the start of Oscar Piastri's career.
Unofficial favorite to take over the seat from Fernando Alonso, he ticks several boxes responding to Alpine's requests: a young 21-year-old driver with many successes, graduate of the Renault Academy and current essayist-reservist driver at Alpine.
The CEO of the Renault group Luca de Meo said at the start of the season last May:
“We have combined the experience of Alonso with the youth of Ocon and now Piastri enters the equation.
It's a challenge to find a seat for the three of them.
We have to protect the three drivers, but also not waste Piastri's super talent.
It's a dilemma, we'll solve it.
Fernando is 41 and Piastri is 21. The time for change will come, but Fernando is a legend and we cannot treat him as just another Alpine employee.
In 2021, the Australian became the only driver in history to consecutively win three championships organized by the FIA: the Eurocup Renault, Formula 3 then Formula 2. He is part of a very closed circle of rookie drivers who have won F2 but also the one who successively won F2 and F3 with Lewis Hamilton, Niko Hülkenberg, Charles Leclerc and George Russell.
Daniel Ricciardo, the unfinished story
Still unclear about his future in Formula 1, Ricciardo is likely to be linked to almost every rumor for the 2023 bucket seats. After announcing his departure from Renault for McLaren on May 14, 2020, a few weeks before the news season, he had achieved solid performances in the shadow of his departure by finishing 5th in the general classification for his last freelance with the French team.
A missed act that only asks to be completed.
A return to Renault for those who are having a difficult season at McLaren?
Too early to say, the Australian wants to stop thinking about his future: "
I have heard a lot of rumors but I want to reassure you personally, I am fully involved and I will honor my contract with McLaren until the end next year
.
I will not leave Formula 1
“, he had tweeted to calm the ardor of the paddock.
Read alsoDaniel Ricciardo: “Last year, I was sometimes at my lowest”
Felipe Drugovich, the logical promotion
The current leader in the general classification of Formula 2 is also a name to watch on the side of Alpine.
The 22-year-old Brazilian will end his third season with F1's little sister, during which he achieved solid performances allowing him to attract several radars.
The peculiarity of Drugovich's profile is his lack of affiliation to an academy, unlike some young drivers: neither Mercedes, nor Red Bull, nor Ferrari signed the native of Maringa during his young years:
"I somehow chosen to be completely free from Junior Teams F1 so far.
It was a good thing.
Being in my current position, I can continue to do what I am doing now.
I am totally free to choose where I can go, depending on the opportunities,”
he told
GP Blog
last week, recalling his goal as a driver in F1 next season.
Felipe Drugovich and Théo Pourchaire, the two contenders for the F2 title.
Xavi Bonilla / PANORAMIC
Théo Pourchaire, a French wedding
Drugovich's main competitor for the Formula 2 title, Théo Pourchaire could turn a blind eye to join Alpine.
Currently 2nd overall, he is in dazzling form and has just narrowed his gap with the Brazilian to 21 points.
Pure product of the French training, member of the French team of the FFSA and driver in the French team of ART, the native of Grasse would logically come full circle by taking the French seat of Alpine.
Nevertheless, the Habs would seem more inclined to wait for a place to become available at Alfa Romeo with whom he carried out tests on the Hungaroring circuit in Hungary a year ago.
Alfa technical director Frédéric Vasseur is also at the head of ART, the Pourchaire team in Formula 2.
A Franco-French duo in a French team?
Unlikely, but the meteoric rise of Pourchaire, at only 18, will not leave the bosses of Renault indifferent.
Zhou Guanyu, Renault's child
Former Renault Academy driver Zhou Guanyu is out of contract with Alfa Romeo at the end of the season.
If Alpine were to encounter difficulties in finding a replacement for Fernando Alonso, the Chinese would represent a logical backup solution, as he has known the teams and the liveries since 2019, the year in which he joined the French formation as an essayist driver of development.
But also: the other F1 drivers at the end of their contract this season (Latifi, Albon, Stroll, Schumacher) could also compete for a new seat next year and why not at Alpine?
In the meantime, Alpine is getting to work to find Esteban Ocon's future teammate.
