2022-2023 Silly Season Thread

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Really?

Sounds to more like a long-term no 2/no 3/admin guy got a TP job on a short-term basis, then somehow got another TP job and now realises the job isn't maybe as easy as he thought.

To lose a double world-champion through being complacent in contract negotiations might be considered careless.

To then, on the same weekend, fly home and allow the option to lapse on the driver with arguably the best ever record in the history of junior racing might be considered even more incompetent.

It wouldn't suprise me if there's a third high-profile exit from Alpine shortly.

I wondered peebee if you referring to Rossi as the overpromoted 'admin' guy? Does seem that Rossi has overestimated his clout in all of this?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Theunser

Another interesting question to me is the Sauber seat alongside Bottas. Zhou is great so far, but they also have Pourchaire lined up for a seat.
What would you do if you were Sauber? Keep Zhou and risk losing Pourchaire to another team, or let the impressive chinese, who has a big sponsorship also, go to a rival team and take a risk with the talented, yet F1 wise unproven frenchman?

Pourchaire is one of a handful of top junior drivers who should have been regularly winning in F2 this year.
Instead there has been a plethora of issues that have muddied the waters like inconsistency, reliability issues, a couple of quick rookies coming in a lot of which helped a journeyman Brazilian pull out a huge points lead. I also think one or two top teams haven't optimised their set ups and strategies which had cost their drivers points.

The upshot appears to be that certain influential people are reassessing (perhaps hastily) their appraisals of the likes of Theo, Lawson and a few others.
Although RB did make Liam their reserve driver abd there is no way someome of his ability should be that far down the table as his superb French win illustrated.

In short, i'm not sure Pourchaire or Lawson will be F1 race drivers soon so maybe Indycar or WEC will be ootions for them.

[bathurst77]

So Oscar P did a ricciardo "lets f--k things up"

Alpine make official announcement that OScar has alonsos seat
2 hours later not only did Oscar say "its not finalise" he says "I WONT be driving for Alpine"
Somebody must have made him a very attractive offer

Is there any point changing from Alpine to Mclaren or A tauri- they are pretty much the same performance or worse.
Ferrari are locked in and you wouldnt want Aston sauber AR, haas or williams if you could have alpine. Unless there is a seat at red bull or merc that we dont know about?

Or he has been told do a year or 2 racing in a merc customer car and when Lewis goes in a year or so, you will be odds on for sitting next to george. Just like George did.

[Alan52]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

You have to wonder what's in the water at Alpine for them to now look like Virgin or Marussia. When a kid who has no F1 race experience is willing to spin the wheel of where with McLaren you end up instead of a seat at Alpine you have to wonder.

And is McLaren getting a bit extended? They keep signing drivers to add to a full Indy lineup, full F1 lineup and what 2 Formula E seats? By my count there are at least 4 Indy drivers for 3 seats (pending the legal fun), 2 guys paid for F1, Piastri now and the continuous US media fun of some kid named Herta, and his buddy Pato, floating around for F1. That's possibly 8 for 5 seats unless they want FE ride to wait out Danny Ric until 2024.

My thoughts are no way in hell for Herta in F1, he's far too rough on his Indy equipment for F1 success, and he can really only go there but he's not under a contract, just a test and potentially the Young Driver testing later

It’s Norris and Piastri for F1 team in 23.Norris would be favourite to take Hamilton’s seat when he retires so that might be a future change.
Agree about Herta and the same applies to any of those Indycar drivers.If they are serious they need to do a year in F2.Too many rank failures have come from Indycar to F1 for it to be any sort of guide.

[P38 in workshop]

The rest of this week might be anything but restful for a few luminaries who were enjoying their summer break.The members of the Contract Recognition Bureau may be receiving texts asking them to keep a couple of days clear in their diaries.Or Alpine's legal department will be looking a bit awkwardly at their Parisian bosses while admitting no contractual obligations were in force as of 23.59.59 on July 31st.Which in turn could lead to one or two frosty interviews.

[GusGasfuss]

In my opinion, Alpine(Renault) is not the worstest place to be in F1. In the moment it matches (or overmatches) Mclaren.
So it must be more personal than based on competitiveness.


Especially, as Piastri was junior driver for Alpine all the time.



We will see, how it will end up. I am not sure, if we will not read sooner or later some old phrases in press releases like "i am proud to be driver of xxx" even if they already said no...

[GusGasfuss]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Alonso and Webber, who is Piastri's manager, are old buddies so there could well be something in it.

Absolutely agree, they might talk about it, or at least Webber was first, to know about Alonsos new contract...


But what is conclusion?
Alonso: I sign with Aston Martin
Webber: ok, your seat at Alpine will be free, lets make a deal with McLaren for Piastri...

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Webber to Alpine is the only possible conclusion.

You heard it here on TenTenths first and we've been waiting about twenty years for it!

[PhilipR]

This is all getting rather silly, and it stems from trying to appease Alonso
I never understood why they brought him back, yes he is one of the greatest and brings a lot of publicity but he has also proved divisive with teams in the past. Now Alpine had to chose between satisfying Alonso or trying to protect their up and coming talent and they missed both - again if rumours are true Alonso did not tell the team he was planning to move to AM leaving them in limbo

I appreciated when Mclaren with Lando and Sainz said Alonso was no longer part of the team and chose to focus on the future and serve their future/current drivers

Now let's hope Piastri and his team know what they are doing as this might backfire on them if it goes badly.
It could be that Oscar will be reserve at Mclaren next year with a seat in 2024 - I imagine Piastri did not know Alonso was leaveing otherwise why not stay with Alping - I would imagine they made a deal after 31st but then were caught out by Alson shoch leave for AM

[Born Racer]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

This is all getting rather silly

Then you've come to the right thread.

I've combined the silly season and Piastri thread as there are two similar discussions emerging and it's very much related to silly season.

[GusGasfuss]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

So Oscar P did a ricciardo "lets f--k things up"

Alpine make official announcement that OScar has alonsos seat
2 hours later not only did Oscar say "its not finalise" he says "I WONT be driving for Alpine"
Somebody must have made him a very attractive offer

Is there any point changing from Alpine to Mclaren or A tauri- they are pretty much the same performance or worse.
Ferrari are locked in and you wouldnt want Aston sauber AR, haas or williams if you could have alpine. Unless there is a seat at red bull or merc that we dont know about?

Or he has been told do a year or 2 racing in a merc customer car and when Lewis goes in a year or so, you will be odds on for sitting next to george. Just like George did.

I also don't see any real advantages between Alpine & McLaren (maybe AT has Advantage as a real RB training team). Performance seems to be equal, changing only between tracks.


As a promising rookie, only places at McLaren, Alpine, AT and maybe Sauber can be interesting. Haas or Williams might be good to learn, but can happen you will be out of F1 after bad season...

[Greem]

I would like to announce that I too will not be driving for Alpine in Formula 1 in 2023, or in fact in any other year. I will not be discussing contractual details in public.

[S griffin]

Real foot in mouth from Alpine there. How could they just announce Piastri without speaking with him first? I can see this getting very messy with Piastri wanting to go somewhere else and Alpine refusing to let him go. Real Mexican standoff here

[Casper]

After giving the Alonso/Piastri shennanigans considerable thought I reckon Webber and his mate Alonso have stitched up Alpine properly.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Casper

After giving the Alonso/Piastri shennanigans considerable thought I reckon Webber and his mate Alonso have stitched up Alpine properly.

I think you're right, but I wonder what their (combined) motivation has been to do so?
Alonso is well known for his bitterness when things don't go his (perceived) way, by why would Webber want to shaft Alpine?

[Sandgroper]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Though someone else I know thinks he's signed for Red Bull and will drive for AT next year, with an expectation of replacing Perez later on!

Either way it seems he had 'options' once Alpine's option expired.

Oscar to AT then future link with Red Bull based the new Porsche & Mark Webber Porsche link relationship.

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by Casper

After giving the Alonso/Piastri shennanigans considerable thought I reckon Webber and his mate Alonso have stitched up Alpine properly.

But what would be the benefit for Piastri?

He is an unknown quantity and Alpine have supported him all through his career and if Alonso were to leave he would have been guaranteed the seat in a supportive environment

It looks more like Alonso stiched uo everybody by not being honest(if rumours are to be believed) about his AM deal which left both Alpine in a tough situation and Piastri probably lost a sure fire seat because of this

If this turns out to be true I would wonder why do teams would like to sign Alonso when he turns out to be a liability and only looking after himself? Also this would be poor behaviour from a 2 times world champion in his 40s. I would expect more professionalism from him
Again these are all speculations and I am sure we will find out the truth quite soon

[Theunser]

I doubt Piastri would post these words if he didn't have a contract sorted already somewhere else. If that is the case tho, he is one honest, brave and stupid man.
Apparently now Alpine claims that Piastri's contract enabled them to confirm him in a seat without letting him now.
At 15:00 Williams will make an announcement, but we don't know yet if it is related to the french soap opera, or as others call it, Alpine F1 team.

The most beautiful thing would be that after all this, Piastri end up driving for Alpine in 2023. Wheter it will be the case or not, dear Netflix generation, welcome to Formula-1!

[PhilipR]

Well lets hope he has a seat or a good legal team to sort all this out.
It is quite peculiar that we have an up and coming and not an established driver that is doing this - success in lower formulae does not necessairly mean success in F1

And the tone it was used the in the tweet categorically stating he will not race for Alpine considering they are the ones who supported his development and later career.

We make comparisons with Palou but at least Palou is reigning indycar champion and probably commands quite a bit of respect in the Paddock

I am also wondering if Piastri thought Alpine will keep Alonso for 2 more years and signed for Mclaren to be reserve in 2023 and then take Ric's seat in 2024(if Mclaren cannot let Ric go before his contract ends) and now due to Alonso's unexpected switch has missed out on a race seat from 2023

[Casper]

Webber is great mates with Alonso, Alonso throws a tantrum when Alpine won't give him what he wants and if he gets his way Piastri won't get a full time drive before he qualifies for the Old Aged Pension. He has a chat to Webber who previously advised Piastri not to go to Williams because driving around the back of the field is a sure way to get a quick exit out of F1 and a deal is done with another team AND WE DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE so let's have a bit of patience out there in internet speculation land and all will be revealed shortly. Meanwhile Alpine have a snooze and forget that both drivers' contracts fall over on the 31st of July and get what bad management deserves, a bloody nose when the result smacks them in the face. Keep tuned this story has more legs yet.

[Greem]

Albon gets in on the merry-go-round

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Casper

Webber is great mates with Alonso, Alonso throws a tantrum when Alpine won't give him what he wants and if he gets his way Piastri won't get a full time drive before he qualifies for the Old Aged Pension. He has a chat to Webber who previously advised Piastri not to go to Williams because driving around the back of the field is a sure way to get a quick exit out of F1 and a deal is done with another team AND WE DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE so let's have a bit of patience out there in internet speculation land and all will be revealed shortly. Meanwhile Alpine have a snooze and forget that both drivers' contracts fall over on the 31st of July and get what bad management deserves, a bloody nose when the result smacks them in the face. Keep tuned this story has more legs yet.

Strikes me most people are misunderstanding the OP situation.

If Alpine's option expired midnight on 31 July, and he then signed elsewhere on 1 August - then he isn't free to accept an Alpine offer on 2 August whether he wants to or not.

[NaBUru38]

McLaren lineup confirmed :P


https://twitter.com/texugosertao/sta...40604872052736

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

McLaren lineup confirmed :P


https://twitter.com/texugosertao/sta...40604872052736

I like that Masi is in the running for one of the McLaren seats. That is some out of the box thinking there!

Richard

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Theunser

I doubt Piastri would post these words if he didn't have a contract sorted already somewhere else. If that is the case tho, he is one honest, brave and stupid man.
Apparently now Alpine claims that Piastri's contract enabled them to confirm him in a seat without letting him now.
At 15:00 Williams will make an announcement, but we don't know yet if it is related to the french soap opera, or as others call it, Alpine F1 team.

The most beautiful thing would be that after all this, Piastri end up driving for Alpine in 2023. Wheter it will be the case or not, dear Netflix generation, welcome to Formula-1!

Albon on a multi-year extension, Chris Medland on Racer says Latifi to be dropped by not likely Piastri destination (cause Alpine says so)