Piastri realistic: 'I never really believed in it'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Oscar Piastri is one of the biggest talents in the junior series. The leader in the F2 championship was mentioned for a long time as a possible option for a seat at Alfa Romeo. But that team chose Zhou and so Piastri can forget about a seat in Formula 1 in 2022. For now, the Australian has to settle for the role of reserve driver for Alpine.
No confidence
Looking back, there appears to be a big difference between being named or seriously having a chance at the seat at Alfa Romeo. In conversation with Autosport Piastri says he has never spoken to Alfa Romeo at all. “I don’t know if my management did or not, to be honest,” Piastri said. “Me personally, I had no talks with anyone at Alfa. I knew from the beginning it was a very outside chance, so yeah, I was never really confident that that was going to happen.”
In principle, Piastri will drive some free practice sessions for Alpine in 2022 and a test programme will be set up for him. Of course, the Australian would have preferred to be on the grid next year. "“Of course I would have loved to be on the grid, but I’m certainly not disappointed with what the outcome is. Obviously Alpine have been really good to me in the last two years and contributing a lot towards my racing, and I wanted to remain loyal to them."
Out of the picture
In the end, the Alfa Romeo seat went to Zhou, also part of the Alpine squad. Piastri is now next in line to move on to Formula One. "I guess it’s nice in some ways to have Zhou I guess out of the picture a little bit.”