F1 News

Formula 2 leader must make do with a reserve role at Alpine in 2022

16 November 2021 at 06:41
Last update 16 November 2021 at 08:58
3
  • GPblog.com

Oscar Piastri has not found a seat in Formula 1 for 2022. Alpine announced on Tuesday morning that the potential Formula 2 champion will be a reserve driver for the French team starting next year.

Potential F2 champion stays with Alpine

Piastri has made quite an impression in the last two years. He won Formula 3 in his first season and with two race weekends to go and a 36 point lead on runner-up Guanyu Zhou, he looks set to take the title in his first year in F2. A permanent place in F1 is not in the cards though.

The Alpine talent seemed to be in the running for the Alfa Romeo seat, but the Italian team probably prefers the money of Zhou (who is second in the F2 championship in his third year in this class) to the talent of Piastri. Since Alpine also doesn't have a spot on its own team, Piastri will have to settle for a reserve role.

Zhou to Alfa Romeo

''I am super excited to announce that I will be a reserve driver for the Alpine F1 team in 2022. It's the next step in our partnership and I'm hugely grateful to Alpine for their continued support. I can't wait to see what we can achieve next year!'' the young driver said on his Twitter channel.

With this announcement, the door is completely open for Zhou at Alfa. There are no more candidates that were on the list, so an announcement of the first Chinese driver in Formula 1 is not far away.