Pierre Gasly reportedly signs with Alpine as Oscar Piastri future in the air

Reports have already emerged that Alpine have already landed their driver for next year, and it could mean disaster for Australia.

A bombshell report is set to scare the Aussies. Photo: Getty Images

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly has reportedly signed for Alpine in a deal which could spell disaster for one Australin F1 star.

The Race has reported Alpine and AlphaTauri have negotiated for Gasly to exit Red Bull and join the French outfit and answer one of the big questions as the wild mid-season break continues to spill into the second half of the season.

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If the report is true, Alpine would have an all-French line up as Gasly would partner Esteban Ocon after two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso shook the sport by announcing he would fill Sebastian Vettel’s vacated seat at Aston Martin.

But the news has thrown the future of Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo into a spin after he was cut loose by McLaren and doesn’t yet have a seat for next season.

Oscar Piastri’s future was up in the air, but it was officially confirmed he’ll be driving for McLaren in 2023.

Everything’s coming up Gasly. Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images

Piastri’s future at Alpine appeared untenable from the second he sent his tweet refusing the seat.

Earlier this week however, McLaren boss Zak Brown said the team have “multiple options, not just the Aussie.

“We have multiple plans,” Brown told SpeedCity Broadcasting.

“There is a CRB meeting which has been reported on – I think we’ll be better placed to comment on it post the meeting.

“We’ve got a variety of options and of course that’s clearly one of them or we wouldn’t be in that meeting. Let’s just see how it plays out and then we will go from there.”

Brown joked the only person who had been ruled out was himself.

“I tried to put myself in the seat but Andreas shot that down, so that’s the only driver that we’ve ruled out so far,” he said.

“We have our testing program, Colton Herta did an excellent job, Pato (O’Ward) was in the car at the end of last year, he did an excellent job.

“Off course, we’ve got our situation with Alex (Palou) going on in the States, we’ll see how that plays out but we certainly intend to put him in our Formula 1 car, so all those drivers have won a lot of races in a very competitive championship.

“I hold IndyCar at the very highest level of motorsport, so I think we’ve got a handful of different options and we’ll just take one day at a time.”

On Sky Sports, former world champion Jenson Button, who was denied a move by the CRB a few years into his career before winning the title with Braun, said Piastri was in a tricky situation.

“You’ve got to think about number one but you can’t make enemies this early in your career,” Button said.

“For Oscar Piastri, if he has to race at Alpine, he has to race at Alpine and they’ll get over it. He’s a very quick driver, hopefully he’s got the right management in Mark Webber that will help him knuckle down and work hard and they can get past this mess that they’ve found themselves in.

“He has to, otherwise his career’s over.

“I don’t even know if Alpine want him in the team anymore. But if the CRB say that’s the direction they have to go then they have to make the best of it.”

Can’t be good for the confidence. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Another seat Daniel Ricciardo misses out on. Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images

Gasly sent the rumour mill into overdrive on Thursday when footage of him talking to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell showed him saying: “I‘m still working on the final details of the contract.”

“Sí, todavía estoy trabajando en los últimos detalles del contrato”.

Esto le dice Pierre Gasly a Charles Leclerc antes de arrancar el Drivers Parade de Bélgica.

A partir de hoy empezaremos a saber cosas. 🫣

pic.twitter.com/bSjYmn6SeY

— Víctor Abad (@victorabadf1) September 1, 2022

He claimed he was speaking about his wedding.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Gasly said: “If you guys would have any idea of the subject we were talking about, you’ll probably laugh. I can guarantee you, it was nothing related to Formula 1.

“For next year, currently, I’m contracted for AlphaTauri. Everybody is aware of my contract situation. For now, nothing has changed.”

Gasly also said Piastri’s gamble shocked him.

“I thought it was quite a bold move from Oscar to refuse an F1 seat, when you know how difficult it can be to get there and being affiliated with Alpine,” Gasly said.

“I was just quite surprised with his move.”