Who is Oscar Piastri and what did 2023 McLaren driver say about Alpine?

OSCAR PIASTRI is used to battling it out on the track for a first place finish on the podium – but he’s been doing laps in the court room instead.

The Australian driver was caught in the middle of an extraordinary contract battle with his current employers Alpine and McLaren.

McLaren had stated that they were planning on tying the future Formula One icon down to a contract having recently paid off Daniel Ricciardo.

Whilst current employers Alpine were adamant they had signed Piastri to a new deal despite the Formula 2 champion refuting the team’s confirmation.

But the Four Person Recognition Board have unanimously ruled in Oscar’s favour for him to leave Alpine and join McLaren for 2023.

Here is everything you need to know about Oscar Piastri.

Who is Oscar Piastri?

Born April 6, 2001, Oscar was raised by Italian-Australian parents in Melbourne, Australia.

The Formula 2 star began racing remote controlled cars at a national level before his career in karting took off during 2011.

By 2014, Piastri had become professional and had took part in Australian championships alongside European and other CIK-FIA sanctioned karting tournaments.

However, the Australian icon moved to the UK in 2016 to better his karting career, which led to Piastri competing and finishing 6th in the Bahrain Championships.

Piastri also landed his first sponsorship deal with HP Tuners that same year and began to really catch the eye of big teams at the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup having won the GP.

And in 2020, Oscar claimed success at the FIA Formula 3 Championship, took part in his first Formula One test in October with the Renault F1 Team and finished first in the Formula 2 Championship in 2021.

Oscar is only the sixth driver to achieve this with superstars such as Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

And the title victory landed the Australian race an Alpine F1 Team’s reserve driver for the 2022 season.

What did Oscar Piastri say about Alpine?

In June 2022, it was reported that Piastri was set to drive for Williams in 2023 on loan from Alpine who were expecting to keep hold of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.

However, Alonso announced that he would be replacing retiring Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin which led Alpine to putting out a statement that Piastri would be stepping in for Alonso in 2023.

But Oscar was not happy with this as he claimed to have not signed any paper work due to the fact that he had already signed a deal with McLaren on July 4 instead.

Reports suggest that key pieces of Alpine’s contractual paperwork were not signed.

The Australian said: “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.”

And after weeks of debating, the FIA Contract’s board unanimously ruled in McLaren and Piastri’s favour entitling the driver to race for McLaren in 2023.

What did Alpine say?

The decision has forced Alpine into looking elsewhere for a 2023 driver as they have indicated that they will not be appealing the decision.

The French team “consider the matter closed” and they have stated that they will announce their driver line-up in due course.

What did McLaren say?

McLaren immediately announced a mult-year deal for new rookie driver Oscar Piastri who will partner Lando Norris.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: “Oscar is one of the up-and-coming talents coming through the feeder series into F1 and we are delighted to see him join the team for 2023.

“Winning both F3 and F2 in successive rookie seasons is a real achievement and testament to his talent in single-seater racing. In Lando and Oscar we have a young, exciting F1 line-up with a huge amount of potential, standing us in good stead to achieve our future ambitions.”

Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk