The Ferrari strategy team have been sacked and are now in charge of driver recruitment at Alpine
Lol!
Otmar is having a bad couple of days. Good job he starts his holiday soon...
The wording of Piastri’s response seems remarkably robust for a driver who’s been offered an F1 race seat at a competitive team. To me it says “I’ve already signed for another team”.
This is going to run. Five quid on Alpine getting Rich Energy as their 2023 title sponsor.
The rumour mill has him going to Mclaren.
Also loving all the other sports teams around the world that are announcing that they’ve signed Piastri 😂
Also loving all the other sports teams around the world that are announcing that they’ve signed Piastri 😂
I don't do Twitter, so can someone post up some of the more hilarious piss takes so we can all have a laugh?
Imagine this was happening to Haas...Netflix would be having a field day with Gunther Steiner 🤣🤣🤣
The F1 teams themselves are actually being quite funny too
Piastri to do a guest performance at the 2022 big Bike Bash??
Am calling it. Stroll to McLaren.
Piastri's rejection of Alpine just doesn't make sense to me unless Red Bull or Merc have guaranteed him a future seat. Surely a guaranteed race seat at Alpine is better than a possible seat at McLaren. The only thing I can think is that either Merc have signed him up to a Williams seat like they did with Russell or Red Bull have signed him for AT with a promise of a future Red Bull seat.
Just read Joe Saward's notebook blog:
https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2022/08/02/green-notebook-from-mosonmagyarovar/#respond
So he's speculating that McLaren might swap Ricciardo with Palou in Indycars which would free up an F1 seat for Piastri. A week ago I would have wondered if he was smoking crack, this week it seems about as plausible as anything.
Surely a guaranteed race seat at Alpine is better than a possible seat at McLaren.
But it’s only a guaranteed seat now that Alonso has upped sticks. Until this week it probably looked like the Alpine seat wouldn’t be opening up for another year or two, in which case he’d have been trying to find a loophole in the contract that would allow him to sign for a different team if a seat became available for 2023. Presumably that’s all happened already.
So, as I understand it, Renault had until midnight last Sunday to find a race seat for Piastri or he could look elsewhere. Apparently Mark Webber (along with Flavio B, who was Webber's and Alonso's manager) was pushing for McLaren to take him so I guess that they must have already signed a deal that McLaren would take him if Renault didn't give him a contract by the deadline. Which would mean that McLaren would have to have decided to pay Ricciardo off so sending him to Chip Ganassi to drive Indycars in exchange for releasing Palou would seem logical, which would make Ricciardo teammates with Scott Dixon, the second most winning Indycar driver ever.
Alpine insisting they have legal right to Piastri...
https://the-race.com/formula-1/alpine-adamant-it-has-legal-right-to-piastri-so-what-next/
I've signed Piastri, and so has my wife!
haha nice
I like Albon - and nice to see someone who had essentially given up on F1 now carving out a decent career.
the-muffin-man
Full MemberI like Albon – and nice to see someone who had essentially given up on F1 now carving out a decent career.
Same, I just hope Williams manage to build a decent car next year.
I like Albon
me to, in fact I think that many of the younger drivers seem to be both talented and [as far as they can be for F1 drivers] modest and likable. Russell, Albon, Schmacher, Norris, Zhou...all seem pretty rounded.
I agree, the current crop of young hot shots are very pleasingly free of the usual racing driver arrogance
I agree, the current crop of young hot shots are very pleasingly free of the usual racing driver arrogance
TBF it seems like Max Verstappen got the entirety of the current generations supply of arrogance... probably not enough to go around for all the rest 😉
Definitely! Lol
How come nothings happened in two whole days.
Enforced holidays?
How come nothings happened in two whole days
It's weird that McLaren haven't made an announcement...
Announcement looming if the rumours are correct...
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/mclaren-end-ricciardo-deal-piastri-2023/10349014/
...to be honest I'd choose McLaren over Alpine. McLaren are building a huge racing company encompassing all areas of motorsport. Alpine (Renault) just seem to piss about at it, never quite committing.
McLaren have the advantage of being further down the road from the junction marked “hire Alonso and watch him set everything on fire and walk away” 🙂
to be honest I’d choose McLaren over Alpine.
Worth it just for the company car to be honest.
I can't help feel sorry for Danny Ric though. Sure he's not exactly covered himself in glory but nor has he engaged in any under the table shenanigans either.
Those poor performance release causes are a bit weird- I wonder if it ever comes down to 'oo I hope he doesn't do too well this weekend, we're so close to being able to replace him'. Imagine hoping that one of your cars does badly!!
[i]Those poor performance release causes are a bit weird- I wonder if it ever comes down to ‘oo I hope he doesn’t do too well this weekend, we’re so close to being able to replace him’. Imagine hoping that one of your cars does badly!![/i]
Maybe you have stumbled upon the reasons for Ferrari strategy calls?
🙂
to be honest I’d choose McLaren over Alpine.
If I was Piastri, I would take the contract guaranteed to give a race seat next year. He's a rookie so a year or two in an Alpine won't hurt his career provided he can hold his own against Ocon. If he can't beat Ocon, I can't see him beating Norris.
Apparently, Ricciardo's contract does not have any performance stipulation, they can't sack him on those grounds. Seems strange but I don't think anyone expected he would struggle so badly. He's definitely trying his best but the car just doesn't suit him. That means that McLaren have to pay him off. It would be ironic if McLaren end up having to pay Alpine to release Piasti, plus pay Ricciardo to not drive, then have Ricciardo move to Renault and get paid by them as well.
Apparently, Ricciardo’s contract does not have any performance stipulation, they can’t sack him on those grounds.
It does but its in Ricciardo's favour, he has a break clause for poor performance from McLaren, not The other way round.
I do wonder where the motivation for someone like Ricciardo comes from from here on in. Unless he lucks in massively he has already driven the most competitive car he ever will drive in F1. He's now driven for a couple more teams. Wiki says he has had 223 F1 race weekends already. He must have netted enough cash to see him through to his dotage comfortably. Do you search around to try to do more of the same, but probably in increasingly irrelevant cars (under the euphemism of experienced hand helping the team to move forward) or do you go have more adventures elsewhere. Go see what indy car is like, or touring cars. Or Dakar or Rallying. I think I'd be more content in my rocking chair on the veranda in my twilight years having experienced a bit more breadth rather than more of the same.
Announcement looming if the rumours are correct…
It used to be the case that a story on motorsport.com from a "source at mclaren" was effectively the same as a mclaren press release, because both were owned by Zak brown. He stepped away from the motorsport network a couple of years ago but I expect there are still some pretty close ties in there.
PlanetF1 (yeah I know) is reporting tha Ric has been told he's being replaced by Piastri
I do wonder where the motivation for someone like Ricciardo comes from from here on in.
Maybe it's just fun racing an F1 car🤷♂️
Those impressions are so good!!
Maybe it’s just fun racing an F1 car🤷♂️
Drive one of the 20 fastest cars in world, or something much slower. . .
Gasly to Alpine is the newest rumour?
He's hit a stale mate with Ref Bull group and the Alpine is a better performing factory team.
