“I think Oscar is guaranteed a spot on the grid next year,” Ricciardo said. But Piastri then declined the offer and the 21-year-old Australian, described as “an incredible talent by Alonso,” has been linked to McLaren as Ricciardo's replacement.
The team said late the next day it was promoting reserve driver Piastri into Alonso’s seat for 2023. “Let’s see if we can short-cut that time as much as possible and make Aston Martin successful next season."Īlonso's move, the day after the Hungarian GP, left Alpine scrambling. No one has a crystal ball to guess the future," he said. “For sure there are some risk on every decision you make in Formula One. Now he's snubbing a team that is fourth in the constructors' championship for one that is ninth. He quit powerhouse Ferrari in 2014 for three miserable years with McLaren. "It’s not only what you agree in terms of the duration of the contract, it’s also the trust you feel and how you feel wanted in a place.”Īlonso, a two-time F1 champion viewed as one of the top talents, has made perplexing choices before. "We were moving around in different things (with Alpine) and we were not maybe agreeing on the principles. “For one reason or another we were not moving forward (since) a couple of months already and it seemed a logical move to me, because Aston was very willing to help me and trust on my abilities on track and off track," he said. "Otmar was not involved in the negotiations and probably Laurent or Luca didn’t call him before the announcement.”Īlonso hinted at frustration that Alpine, which has been developing F2 champion Oscar Piastri, was not offered a multi-year contract to return. “It’s true, Otmar probably didn’t know anything," Alonso said. He said he did give Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi and president Luca De Meo a heads-up, as well as his mechanics and engineers. Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, where the F1 season resumes following its mid-season break, Alonso confirmed he did not alert Szafnauer. The decision stunned Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer, who has said he learned of Alonso's defection via the Aston Martin announcement. I felt it was a nice project for the future." engineers, designers, new facilities in Silverstone. “I think the project is very attractive, obviously there is a lot of investment going on. “We started talking on that weekend briefly and (on) Monday morning we signed," Alonso said. Four days after Vettel's announcement, Alonso was named Aston Martin's driver for 2023. When Vettel finally decided his future, Aston Martin wasted no time reaching out to Alonso.