"We believe we are legally correct in our statement" - Alpine reacts to Oscar Piastri's rejection of the French outfit for 2023 F1 season

A spokesperson from Alpine F1 has reacted to Oscar Piastri's rejection of the French team for the 2023 F1 season. The team announced Piastri as its driver for 2023, but the Australian has since claimed that he has not signed with the team and will not be driving for it next year.

It would seem that Sebastian Vettel's retirement snowballed into a series of possible transfers in the F1 world. Alpine F1 was keen on re-signing with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso after the 2022 Hungarian GP, but the Spaniard unexpectedly announced his move to join Aston Martin in 2023.

With Alonso's departure from the team imminent, Alpine announced that it would sign F2 and F3 champion Oscar Piastri, who has been the team's reserve driver for some time now. However, Piastri denied having signed any contract with the French team for the 2023 season, explicitly stating that he would not be racing for Alpine in 2023.

Piastri's personal statement read:

“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.’’

Alpine F1's spokesperson responded to the 21-year-olds comments, saying:

“We believe we are legally correct in our statement but don’t have anything further to say.’’

It is still unclear whether Oscar Piastri will be under legal trouble for his statement. He is, however, rumored to have secured a deal with McLaren for the 2023 season.

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Oscar Piastri has legal obligations with the team, says Alpine team principal

Alpine F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer had clearly mentioned earlier that Oscar Piastri had legal obligations with the team and could not race for McLaren next season.

With F1 entering its peak silly season during the summer break, it is still unclear how matters will proceed. Szafnauer told the media:

“I’m not privy to whatever pre-arrangements he has with McLaren, if any at all. But I hear the same rumours that you do in the pitlane. But what I do know is that he does have contractual obligations to us. And we do to him. And we’ve been honouring those obligations all year. And those obligations, last through ’23, and possibly in ’24, if some options are taken up. And our obligations to him this year was to be a reserve driver, to also put him in last year’s car for a significant amount of time.’

If McLaren were to take Oscar Piastri on board, it would have to drop Daniel Ricciardo. However, it is still unclear where both the Australian drivers will end up in 2023. F1 fans around the world are purely in shock due to the Alpine-Piastri-McLaren saga, with no one in the public eye having any real idea about how things are likely to proceed.