Is Piastri to blame? 'Alpine were kind of not focused'

Alpine and Oscar Piastri dominated the news on Tuesday. While the French formation appointed the driver as successor for the departing Fernando Alonso during the day, the driver appeared to know nothing about it and even did not want to work for Alpine at all. Peter Windsor explains on his YouTube channel how the situation could come to this.

According to information from the Formula One journalist, the problem started because of Alpine's inattention. The formation did have the possibility to continue the cooperation with Piastri, but allegedly forgot to lift an option in the contract.

"My understanding is that Webber and Oscar had an option with Alpine that it had to take up by august the first this year. And Alpine were kind of not focused because around that time a certain Fernando Alonso announced that he was leaving Alpine and going to Aston Martin for next year," Windsor states.

Since Alpine was mainly surprised by Alonso's news, it forgot to quickly look at other options. It was only later that Piastri's name came up and it decided to come out with the news quickly, but in doing so it overlooked a problem.

"The Alpine guys then took their eye off the ball a little bit and probably I would guess were remiss not taking up the option on Oscar's services." Piastri is said to be in talks behind the scenes about a move to McLaren, although it remains to be seen whether Daniel Ricciardo will want to make way.