Buckle up babes, there’s big drama in the F1 world and it’s centred around everyone’s boyfriend Daniel Ricciardo.
In short there’s a bunch of rumours circulating that Ricciardo is set to be replaced in his McLaren race seat by a fellow Aussie called Oscar Piastri. Let me put on my thinking helmet and explain the sitch.
As first reported by Autosport, it’s rumoured that McLaren has told Ricciardo it’s going to replace him. Apparently, Piastri’s believed to have signed on as a reserve driver for 2023. But the idea is that he’ll then move up to the race seat. Spicy!
The other tea is that Ricciardo’s contract with McLaren includes the 2023 season, so according to Autosport his team’d be looking at a big ‘ol payout if he has to leave early.
To add to the whole messy drama, rival racing company Alpine tweeted on August 3 that Piastri had been promoted to its race seat. He was a reserve driver for Alpine.
https://twitter.com/AlpineF1Team/status/1554500248432680960?s=20&t=aQ3eVjleT5_SZpl2jZl4rw
But then Piastri put out his own statement saying he isn’t driving for Alpine next year. Which of course makes the rumour that he’s moving to McLaren look even more legit.
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.
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 2, 2022
Wow, it’s like the movie Cars doing a cursed crossover with Real Housewives Of Beverley Hills. I mean, if F1 was actually just a competition between sentient cars.
USA Today speculated that Ricciardo could potentially then race for Alpine, seeing as they have an F1 seat spare.
But it’s all a little awkies, because Ricciardo used to race for Renault — which rebranded to, you guessed it, Alpine. You might remember that drama from previous seasons of Formula 1: Drive to Survive.
At the moment McLaren hasn’t actually made any announcements about its race seat either so the whole sitch is still pretty messy.
Just saying, this would make excellent content for season five of Drive to Survive. Australian-centric F1 beef? I’d vroom vroom straight to my couch for a binge watch.
