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Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher has aired his thoughts on all the drama surrounding Oscar Piastri.
Piastri had earlier denied having signed for Alpine after the team made an official public announcement suggesting otherwise. Schumacher believes that the Formula 2 champion is not in the wrong and that Alpine's reaction regarding a potential court case has been rather unnecessary.
As reported by SkySports, Schumacher claimed that Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has himself to blame for the drama rather than Piastri, who is rumored to have signed with McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo in 2023. The German said:
“The morale is completely out of place. I’m sorry. I like Otmar [Szafnauer], but he himself is disappointed with his own performance, that he didn’t see [Fernando] Alonso coming and that he doesn’t have a plan B. That’s the embarrassing thing about the whole thing. Accordingly, he has to blame himself. Oscar [Piastri] didn’t do anything wrong. Ultimately, Renault would have had the Alonso personality earlier and have to convey to Piastri that they will be counting on him in the future. He won Formula 3 in the first year, as well as Formula 2. What should he wait for? I would have done the same if I had received an offer. And McLaren are certainly a top team.”
Emphasizing that the young Australian made the right career move by choosing McLaren, Schumacher added:
“I think it’s a very good career move. Otmar is also a great team boss, but under Andi [Andreas Seidl, McLaren team principal] he will feel comfortable, he will be carefully built up there. In Lando Norris, he has a young, strong team-mate from whom he can learn a lot. So Piastri did everything right. Now one can only hope that the bad loser - in Alpine’s case - doesn’t put obstacles in the boy’s way. The boy was with them, they had everything in their hands, they just had to give him a contract.”
Oscar Piastri's situation is "laughable", says McLaren's IndyCar star
Arrow McLaren SP's IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward described the dream of racing for McLaren F1 as an "illusion," claiming that the current situation between Oscar Piastri and the Woking-based team is rather "laughable".
Speaking to ESPN about Piastri's situation, the Mexican said:
“Although I am driving at a very, very high level, not even with that am I going to be able to convince them. There are many more things and policies, there are many things that are very much out of my control, that I will never be able to control and that is where I have to leave it, because it is no use marrying the illusion. I feel like it was laughable – I see it and I laugh. That same award [an F1 seat] has been put in front of many drivers by [chief executive Zak Brown] and sooner or later there is only one dessert, not five.”
Meanwhile, no formal announcement has been made regarding Oscar Piastri's move to McLaren as of yet.
