F1 news 2022: Aussie Oscar Piastri released early from Alpine contract

An agreement between two teams closes the chapter on a messy end to Oscar Piastri’s time with Alpine after his mid-year contract saga.

Oscar Piastri will be making the switch to McLaren.

Oscar Piastri is free to officially start his preparations for the launch of his Formula One career with McLaren after Alpine agreed to release the Australian young gun early from his contract.

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl and Alpine counterpart Otmar Szafnauer confirmed the teams had agreed to a deal which would allow Piastri to take part in the official end-of- season test in Abu Dhabi.

After his signing at McLaren to replace Daniel Ricciardo was confirmed, the Melbourne racer was shelved by Alpine, which elected to put junior driver and fellow Australian Jack Doohan in the car for the first of its mandatory practice sessions at the Mexican Grand Prix ahead of reserve driver Piastri.

The early contract release allowed Piastri to conduct a private test in McLaren’s 2021 car in France last week ahead of the young driver test following next week’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when he will get the chance to drive McLaren’s 2022 car.

Oscar Piastri is joining McLaren. Picture: Getty Images

“I can confirm that, in the end, we reached a settlement agreement with all parties involved, which enabled us to put Oscar in an old car last week in Paul Ricard and do a private test, which will enable us as well to officially start working with Oscar on Monday after the last race in Abu Dhabi,” Seidl said.

“(That) enables us then as well to put him in the current car at the young driver test in Abu Dhabi, which is something we are very much looking forward to.”

“(It is) great for us and for Oscar.”

The agreement closes the chapter on a messy end to Piastri’s time with Alpine after his mid-year contract saga.

The drama started when Alpine announced Piastri would be replacing dual world champion Fernando Alonso before the 21-year-old shot down the announcement on his social media, saying he would not be racing with the French team in 2023.

It later emerged Piastri had signed an agreement to race with McLaren, in place of fellow Australian Ricciardo, with the situation referred to Formula One’s Contract Recognition Board, which ruled in McLaren’s favour.

Szafnauer said with the season coming to an end the time had come to allow Piastri, who has been a part of the Alpine family since the start of 2020, to start his career with McLaren.

“The season’s nearly at the end and it was time to come to an agreement and we did and we’re happy that Oscar can start his McLaren career after the last race in Abu Dhabi and do the test and we’ll be doing the same with Pierre (Gasly),” Szafnauer said.

Seidl said it was hard to read too much into Piastri’s on-track performance in the team’s old car last week, but taking part in the post-season test would be crucial.

Otmar Szafnauer and Alpine are allowing Piastri to join McLaren. Picture: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

“To be honest, running an old car, alone on a track, there is not too much to read into it,” Seidl said.

“In the end, it was a good start from Oscar, together with us.

“As you know, kilometres nowadays in Formula One cars for race drivers are quite limited with the regulations that are in place, especially when it comes to running the current car.

“And therefore it’s obviously a very important test for us to get an initial read from Oscar’s side as well on our car and give him an initial feeling, which is then simply the starting point of making sure we get him ready for Bahrain next year.

“We have a good program in place. I think we have a lot of experience in getting young drivers ready for their first race in Formula One. That’s obviously the objective.

“We want to try as hard as we can together with Oscar, that the first race in Bahrain next year actually doesn’t feel like it’s the first race for him in Formula One.

“The young driver test is obviously an important starting point.”

Originally published as F1 news 2022: Aussie Oscar Piastri released early from Alpine contract