Yahoo Autos Oscar Piastri Will Join McLaren in 2023
When Sebastian Vettel surprisingly announced his retirement in late July, he triggered an unexpectedly chaotic silly season for Formula 1. Fernando Alonso announced an imminent move from Alpine to replace Vettel at Aston Martin, then Alpine announced that they would bring reserve driver and 2021 Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri up to F1 as Alonso's replacement. Unfortunately for Alpine, Piastri revealed hours later that he had no plans to join the Renault-aligned team, with the implication that he would be backing a separate contract he had signed with McLaren a month prior. McLaren then reached an agreement to end the final year of their deal with Daniel Ricciardo, opening the door for Piastri to join the team. That brought a review from Formula 1's little-discussed Contract Review Board into play.
Today, the board has announced its decision. Piastri will join McLaren in 2023, pairing with Lando Norris at Zak Brown's team and officially ending any hopes of him joining Alpine. The board determined that only Piastri's contract with McLaren was valid, ending Alpine's claim to his talents. Piastri is now signed with McLaren for both 2023 and 2024.
Although this matter is now resolved, it raises further questions that will cascade down the grid. If Alpine finds a way to take Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri, as has been widely speculated, Red Bull will have at least one open seat at its junior team and no major contenders within its famed farm system ready to step up to F1. Could that really lead to American Colton Herta joining Formula 1 in 2023? There are a few hurdles left to clear, but Herta's case got much stronger with today's news.
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