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Australian F2 Champion and current Alpine test driver Oscar Piastari has a lot of options for next season. He is one of the brightest young faces in the circuit and will be heavily sought after for a number of rides next season. When it was announced that Fernando Alonso would be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin in 2023,
it seemed like it was going to be a slam dunk that he would fill the seat. Everything is going as planned, so much so that they announced he was their driver this morning. Yes, there was some hesitancy as McLaren and team boss Zak Brown offered him a ride but that seemed out of the question considering both their drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Riccardo are under contract. Everything was coming together for the french team, they have the franchise driver they can build around for the future.
Then just about 15 minutes ago everything changed. "This is wrong, I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be racing there" These were the words of Oscar himself and now it seems as if he is bound for McLaren as Daniel Riccardo's replacement. This just goes to show you that nothing in racing is absolute and you should always take what you see with the tiniest grain of salt. We have seen this three times in all of the big three of motorsports. First, we saw it with Tyler Reddick in NASCAR, then we saw it with Alex Palou in IndyCar and now it's happening again in F1. Strap in everyone, It's only going to get messier over the next few weeks of summer break.