Otmar Szafnauer: Last News

F1 reporter Ted Kravitiz has hit out at Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi following the team’s bungled handling of McLaren-bound Oscar Piastri.The driver market saga of the summer kicked off when Fernando Alonso announced he would be joining Aston Martin at the end of the season after failing to agree a new deal with Alpine.The Renault-backed team seemed to have a readymade replacement in Piastri, their talented reserve driver. Alpine announced Piastri would replace Alonso, only for the Australian to declare via Twitter that he would be racing elsewhere in 2023. READ MORE: Mark Webber breaks silence over Oscar Piastri saga involving McLaren and Alpine Piastri had already signed with McLaren by that point and had informed Alpine of his plan to leave the Enstone-based squad.

F1’s summer breaking rumbles on.Fernando Alonso got the ball rolling at the start of last week when it was announced he would be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin, where he will replace the retiring Sebastian Vettel, at the end of the season.A day later, Alpine said it would be promoting reserve driver Piastri to its race seat, only for the Australian to reject the statement and publically declare he would be driving elsewhere in 2023. Piastri and his management team are said to be chasing a move to McLaren, with some reports claiming the F2 champion has already signed a deal to replace the struggling Daniel Ricciardo. READ MORE: F1 boss defends Fernando Alonso decision with Michael Schumacher and cricket comparison Alpine are adamant their contract with Piastri for next year is robust, despite suggestions they missed a deadline to take up the option in his contract to promote him to a race seat. Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has been left disappointed by Piastri’s perceived lack of loyalty, but is still confident he will be in the team alongside Esteban Ocon next season.

F1 seat as early as this year, Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has suggested.Despite winning the feeder class last year, the Australian, who is Alpine’s reserve driver, missed out on a full-time F1 seat this season. Zhou Guanyu, last season’s F2 runner-up, got the nod at Alfa Romeo thanks to his Chinese backing while there was no room at Alpine, with Fernando Alonso taking his F1 comeback into a second year.Alonso looks set to stay with the Renault-run team for 2023 too, prompting questions over where the talented Piastri can be squeezed in.Williams appears to be his most likely destination as a replacement for Nicholas Latifi, who is enduring a woeful campaign.

Christian Horner has urged for the Formula One budget cap to be raised for the 2022 season, warning that teams could be forced to miss races at the back end of the season. The current budget limit this year is $140m (£111m) and Red Bull's stance is supported by a number of rivals on the grid, including Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren.However, Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Haas and Williams all voted against a proposal for an inflationary adjustment amid rising costs at last month's F1 commission, where the ten teams met with Formula One officials and the FIA.Some teams are concerned that the top teams are arguing for an increase as a way of maintaining their high spending, with reports earlier this month suggesting that Red Bull have already spent 75% of their upgrade budget this season.Horner believes it's an issue that could prove to be catastrophic at the end of the season, with teams potentially skipping races. Quoted by the BBC, he said: "Seven of the teams would probably need to miss the last four races to come within the cap this year."It's not just about the big teams.