Formula 1 teams Alpine and McLaren announced on Saturday November 12 that they had reached an agreement to release Australian Oscar Piastri, Alpine reserve driver who was at the heart of a legal battle, before the end of the year. Thanks to this agreement, Piastri will therefore be able to join McLaren, of which he will be one of the two drivers next season in F1, after the last race of the season, in Abu Dhabi, to take part in tests.
“We have reached an agreement (…) which will allow us to officially start working with Oscar on Monday after the last race in Abu Dhabi, and also to put him behind the wheel of the current car during the young driver tests. in Abu Dhabi”on November 22, explained Andreas Seidl, McLaren team principal.
Oscar Piastri, trained at the Alpine Academy in recent years, was at the heart of a legal tangle in August, with McLaren and Alpine each claiming to have a contract with the driver for next season. Finally, the F1 contract recognition office agreed with McLaren in September.
McLaren announced, in the process, the signing of a “multi-year” contract with Piastri for his first F1 season, in 2023, alongside Briton Lando Norris. At Alpine, Pierre Gasly, currently a pilot with AlphaTauri, will join Esteban Ocon in 2023 to form a duo of French pilots. By then, Gasly will also be released from his contract with AlphaTauri and will take part in the end-of-season tests with the French team in Abu Dhabi, confirmed Otmar Szafnauer, the boss of Alpine.