New regulations new season....
Can redbull keep up the pace
I'd say there is going to be serious meetings at Renault HQ between the CEO and Alpine management.
Ricciardo is doing the right by digging his heels in.
Why would McLaren pay Alpine to have Danny Ric drive for them? They are separate issues. They will have to buy Danny out of his contract and pay him however many millions and then his ties to McLaren are cut. If he’s driving for Alpine he’ll have to hammer out a new contract with them and I don’t see why McLaren would be involved? If I was Ricciardo I’d take my cheque from McLaren and then negotiate another few million a year out of Alpine.
Maybe Piastri wasn't even guaranteed a drive with Alpine in 2023 or 2024 until Alonso dropped that bombshell. He may have not felt wanted and said right I'm off to Mclaren.
Maybe Piastri has been told that Ricciardo is getting the boot at the end of the season but the logistics have not been worked out yet.
McLaren is not a big step up from a guaranteed seat at Alpine. There must be more to this story than meets the eye.
Bizarre if true. Turning down a seat in F1 next year to be reserve in another mid tier team?
Unless McLaren were confident of getting rid of Ricciardo next year but he’s digging his heels in.
Espn Brazil are claiming Piastri is going to McLaren as reserve in 2023 before replacing Ric in 2024.
@klose wrote "You'd imagine the path of least resistance is ricciardo back to renault/Alpine and Piastri to mclaren. I know ricciardo said he will drive for them next year but could be tempted to go back to alpine if they offer him a multi year contract as he has absolutely zero bargaining power after his displays with mclaren so far."
hey offer him a multi
I think the events of the past weekend increase his bargaining power.
If McLaren have committed to Piastri then they need to breaks Ricciardo's contract, presumably by buying him out. Buying him out might involve buying him a seat at Alpine. i.e. Alpine could get Ricciardo and have some or all of his fee paid by McLaren. Otherwise Alpine do nothing, go elsewhere, possibly sue Piastri and get an injunction stopping him racing for McLaren.
It does look like Alpine dropped the ball. But it also looks like Briatore, Alonso and Webber set up a sting on Alpine. If so, there might be consequences down the road.
That really was a crazy couple days and hard to believe it all as Alpine come out looking badly amateur. Piastri to publicly decline an F1 seat at a works team must mean he has something rock solid locked down for next season, it will be interesting to see how it all pans out, I imagine there will be some legal disputes to follow.
You'd imagine the path of least resistance is ricciardo back to renault/Alpine and Piastri to mclaren. I know ricciardo said he will drive for them next year but could be tempted to go back to alpine if they offer him a multi year contract as he has absolutely zero bargaining power after his displays with mclaren so far.
Alpine does seem a bit of a mess? Didn't Prost leave the team on fairly messy terms? Often leave alonso and ocon race eachother when all they do is slip backwards. All this going on now too, not a great look really.
Was Briatore 's ban from representing drivers overturned? Strange that such an unsavoury character was allowed return to a role in F1.
Piastri is involving himself with some unsavoury characters if Briatore is behind it all.
Surely Piastri has a contract signed or multiple on the table. It would hurt his bargaining power declaring himself out of Alpine otherwise. I guess the new team are working on opening a seat.
I guess it’s justice if Alpine suffer the most. Committed to neither Alonso or Piastri. More pressure on Otmar.
Makes perfect sense after reading that article above.
Alonso, Webber and Flavio pissed all over Renault.
Kept the Alonso deal quite til piastri passed his freedom date and then pulled both drivers from the team.
It's bad management from Renault / Alpine not to have Alonso signed up prior to the important date.
I still can't help thinking that piastri will realise in future that he has made a blunder here.... Jumping into bed with Flavio and Alonso on an underhand plan is never going to be a good outcome.
Excellent read that is thanks!
His management is Mark Webber. Not exactly known for his diplomacy.
This is a great write up of it all
It's all a total Piastrophy
I think Latifi is likely to leave, he'll have done three seasons, he's not making any strides so he'll probably step aside.
Lol....
I’ll say this, Piastri had better live up to the hype after all of this. Not turned a wheel in anger in F1 yet and he has turned down a seat already.
No pressure there…none at all!
Agree with that. If he's good enough behind the wheel then that will iron over any past disputes.
But he hasn't raced an F1 car yet and many great drivers from lower series have failed to find their feet in the sport over the years so he really should be doing everything in his power to maximise his chances and airing dirty laundry in public is not a good way to do that. Even if Alpine are proved to be in the wrong it would have shown more maturity to handle it privately and stay silent until he can announce where he actually is driving.
So that's presumably the 2 Williams' seats gone for next year?
With the money Latifi's parents are contributing he's surely safe enough despite his performances.
Not a good idea for Piastri to make that tweet, comes across as impetuous. He'd have been better to let his management or lawyers make a statement.
Having said that I think claims that he has "burned bridges" are premature. They want him in the car for a reason and a tweet won't change that. We've seen drivers and teams work together despite bad blood or contractual disputes.
Albon taking the absolute p*ss! Ya gotta love it 😂😂😂
Alpine can't wait for Ferrari's next clusterfcuk to take the heat off them
Trolling us all
The news we were all eagerly awaiting...
The problem with Aston Martin is Stroll and Stroll. Too much of a family affair to build a top team. They are never going to have a huge fan base or following either.
That and Alpine seem to have become a team that are happy just to have a presence in F1, they are not gunning for glory. If you look a the recruitment drive Aston Martin have been on and the facilities they are building on the other hand, they are aiming for championships. Whether they can make it all gel that's another thing.
They wouldn't offer him a two year contract
Williams will have a hard time living up to Alpines tweet yesterday.
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