It's the tweet that changed everything for Oscar Piastri.
A blunt 48-word message in 2022 paved the way for the Australian driver to lead the current Formula 1 standings with McLaren, rather than struggling to get into the top 10 with Alpine.
“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,” Piastri wrote. “This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”
Nearly three years on from Piastri — who was then Alpine's reserve — snubbing the team for McLaren in such a public way, it's clear he made the right choice.
Piastri has won four of the six races this season and is on a streak of three wins in a row. He has 131 points this year, while Alpine has seven points in total and last won a race nearly four years ago.
Piastri is targeting a fourth consecutive win in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, but suspects the bumpy Imola track could mean tougher competition for McLaren than two weeks ago in Miami.
“When you’ve won four out of six, it’s been a great start. I’ve been enjoying the success we’ve been having on track, but for me what’s been very satisfying is all the work we’ve done behind the scenes to achieve that,” he said Thursday. “It’s quite a different feeling when you win a race because you feel like you’ve just gotten by or had good circumstances. But to now be winning because we have an incredibly quick car and I feel like I’m driving well, that’s very satisfying.”
Piastri fastest in practice
Piastri and McLaren had the pace again in Friday’s first practice session as the Australian was fastest by .0032 of a second ahead of teammate and title rival Lando Norris. Carlos Sainz, Jr. was third-fastest for Williams, .020 off Norris’ time. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only seventh-fastest for Red Bull.
The session was stopped with just over two minutes left when Gabriel Bortoleto slid off track and tapped the barrier, leaving his Sauber stuck in the gravel.
Alpine's rocky season
Alpine isn't challenging the top teams on pace but it's in pole position for drama.
The Renault-owned team had been expected for months to drop Australian driver Jack Doohan, a rookie, for the fast but inconsistent reserve Franco Colapinto.
At the Miami Grand Prix, team principal Oliver Oakes dismissed that claim, but two days after the Miami race, Oakes suddenly resigned. A day later, Alpine dropped Doohan — whose best race result was 13th — after the Miami Grand Prix and promoted Colapinto.
The Argentine driver, a mid-season replacement at Williams in 2024, is happy to be back in F1 but expressed reservations Thursday about how the whole process has been handled.
Colapinto said it's “never nice circumstances” to get a seat at another driver's expense, and expressed concern his new deal — which only runs for five races — isn't long enough to really show what he can do.
Italian fans have something to cheer
The first of two races in Italy this year is already delighting the home fans.
For the first time since 2021, they have an Italian driver in Mercedes' 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, and Ferrari's red-clad tifosi fans get their first sight of Lewis Hamilton racing for the team on Italian soil.
Piastri, too, has been connecting with his Italian heritage as he met with some “very, very distant relatives” and became an honorary citizen of Licciana Nardi in Tuscany, where his family name originated.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
James Ellingworth, The Associated Press
