{"id":385413,"date":"2026-01-03T10:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385413\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:46:10","slug":"it-wasnt-funny-piastri-reflects-on-alpine-f1-contract-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/385413\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt wasn\u2019t funny\u201d \u2013 Piastri reflects on Alpine F1 contract saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar Piastri<\/a> has reflected on the contractual saga that occurred in mid-2022, when he signed a McLaren<\/a> Formula 1 deal as an Alpine<\/a> junior.<\/p>\n

Piastri joined the Renault Sport Academy, as it was then called, for the 2020 season after narrowly clinching the Formula Renault Eurocup title.<\/p>\n

The Australian went on to win the F3 and F2 championships as a rookie, but had to spend 2022 on the sidelines as Alpine\u2019s reserve driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly a tough time,\u201d Piastri said in F1\u2019s newly released Off The Grid video, filmed in Monaco \u2013 where he resides \u2013 in November. \u201cNaturally, as a racing driver, you want to go racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat year, not racing was tough, definitely. It did allow me to view some things from the outside a little bit easier: being part of a weekend, understanding what media commitments are going to be like, what the sponsor commitments are going to be like, just the general rhythm of the season. I learned a few things about that, but it was a tough time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always kind of took pride in the fact that I was doing everything that I could, and I was always confident that something would come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Something \u2013 several things \u2013 did. The Enstone-based team was facing a conundrum with three quality drivers for two seats, as Piastri was an obvious contender alongside incumbents Fernando Alonso<\/a> and Esteban Ocon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Fernando <\/p>\n

Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Oscar Piastri, Alpine<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alpine<\/p>\n

Alpine considered loaning Piastri out to Williams<\/a> until it emerged that Alonso would be moving to Aston Martin. The outfit then announced its protege\u2019s promotion to a race seat, which the youngster stiffly denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out that Piastri had already signed a contract with McLaren, and the FIA\u2019s Contract Recognition Board ruled in the papaya team’s favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of knew that it was going to be a pretty big story,\u201d he smiled. \u201cThere were reasons for doing that, it wasn’t just me going out of my ways to announce to the world that I’m not racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I certainly look back on it now with some laughs. Definitely at the time, it wasn’t so funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously went to the CRB. Things were in my favour, but that was another pretty tense moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This meant Piastri made his F1 debut with McLaren, not Alpine, in 2023. \u201cThat was an incredible moment. Then also kind of hits you that everything you’ve done previously almost doesn’t matter now,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

Although he missed out on the 2025 drivers\u2019 title, Piastri can already boast a remarkable record of six pole positions and 26 podiums, including nine victories, in 70 grands prix \u2013 and he\u2019s \u201cstill learning\u201d.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar Piastri has reflected on the contractual saga that occurred in mid-2022, when he signed a McLaren Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1035,49,48,578,576,577,590,592,82,163898,1196],"class_list":{"0":"post-385413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-alpine","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-mclaren","15":"tag-oscar-piastri","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-u201cit-wasnu2019t-funnyu201d-u2013-piastri-reflects-on-alpine-f1-contract-saga","18":"tag-williams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}