One year after “bizarre episode”
Young star Piastri can now drive for McLaren for a long time
September 20, 2023, 1:58 p.m
The Oscar Piastri case was a summer slump filler in Formula 1 in 2022. The Australian will now stay with McLaren long-term. But what happened back then? No matter what happened, the future is bright for one of the racing series’ hopes for the future.
More than a year after the Formula 1 antics with Alpine, Oscar Piastri will remain a long-term driver at McLaren. Shortly before the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka this weekend, the Australian extended his contract with the traditional English team until the end of 2026. His English teammate Lando Norris is tied to McLaren until the end of 2025.
“I want to fight with this team at the front of the grid and I’m excited about the vision and the foundations that are already being laid for this,” said Piastri. Team principal Andrea Stella said: “Oscar is an asset to McLaren and continues to impress with his performance, work ethic and attitude, so it was an easy decision for the team.”
Piastri has been a Formula 1 driver for McLaren since this season and collected 42 points in his debut season. This puts him in eleventh place in the drivers’ standings. However, its premiere with the former racing team of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost was preceded by a farce.
Piastri relieves about stability
Piastri was announced last summer by the French racing team Alpina as its regular driver for 2023. However, he immediately contradicted this representation because he had long had an agreement with McLaren. The arbitration board for contract disputes in motorsport ultimately had to clarify the dispute and declared the former Formula 2 and Formula 3 champion’s contract with McLaren to be legal.
Alpine was surprised at the time by Fernando Alonso’s announcement that he would replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin from 2023. The French then announced Piastri, who was strangely a replacement driver for Alpine and McLaren at the time, as the new regular driver. According to their own statements, the young man and his management had told Alpine several times that they would not drive for them in the future.
“Stability is a huge advantage at this early stage of my career and having it with such a prestigious brand like McLaren gives me the opportunity to continue the work we started,” said Piastri.