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2021 Formula 2 world champion and Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri is pegged as one of the biggest talents in the sport and yet remains outside of the 2022 F1 grid. Several fans were shocked to see the Australian spend this season on the sidelines, but Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has made it clear that this is unlikely to be the case in 2023. The Frenchman said that while Piastri may not be promised a seat in Alpine, the team is ready to loan the young driver.
As reported by Motorsport, Rossi shared his plans for Piastri:
“It’s normal for Fernando [Alonso] to not project himself only until the end of this year. It’s normal and as long as he drives so well, if I were him I would just keep on driving. It’s a bit early in the season for us to position any driver anywhere in our team as well as in the other teams. So I didn’t make too much of that. We’re going to develop Oscar [Piastri] through the programme, it doesn’t change anything. Then we’ll make sure that... it’s not a question of if, but when Oscar steps into Formula 1 he will be as ready as possible. That’s the only thing that matters to me.”
Reassuring that he has no intention of keeping Piastri on the sidelines for a second F1 season, he added, saying:
“You understand I want to develop Oscar, I don’t want to leave him sitting on the bench waiting forever. He needs to be ready when the day comes. And the day will come because he’s very talented, he’s very worthy of one of the top 20 seats here. And I do believe he has the potential of being a future world champion, I’m persuaded of that. So he needs to be trained as much as he can in the meantime.”
Alpine has been an extremely successful constructor in the sport in its previous iteration as Renault. Its current driver Fernando Alonso has won two championships with the team. The Spaniard, currently the oldest driver on the grid, shared that he intends to stay for the 2023 season. Subsequently, the French team is certainly open to finding their most prized reserve driver another seat for the time being.
Alpine boss wants Piastri to join when the team gets "to the top of the podium"
The French team has slowly been making its way up the midfield in the past few years. It had a particularly good season in 2021, where Esteban Ocon's maiden race win and Fernando Alonso's podium in Qatar put it above AlphaTauri in the constructors' standings. The team, however, is still struggling to get back to the days of contending for the championship title.
Laurent Rossi revealed that he hopes to have Oscar Piastri driving for Alpine when the team is capable of giving him a car that could fight for podiums, wins, and championships. He said:
“That’s the thing we discussed with him and [manager] Mark Webber. I would love to have Oscar as my driver for the future Alpine when we get to the top of the podium. For me the ideal scenario is that he wins races and championships with us. That’s what we’re going to try and achieve.”
Meanwhile, the team is currently fifth in the constructors' standings and hopes to improve over the long 2022 F1 season.
