02/08/2022
NEWS STORY
Though Alpine has yet to confirm Oscar Piastri as teammate to Esteban Ocon, we do at least know that the youngster will make his FP1 debut with the French team at Spa... or possibly Monza.
Despite saying only last week that remaining with Alpine was his "priority", yesterday, on announcing his move to Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso was uttering the usual platitudes in terms of "commitment", "excitement", "ambition", "passion" and "desire".
However, those expecting Alpine to follow the announcement with one of its own, confirming Oscar Piastri as teammate to Esteban Ocon, were to be left disappointed.
As a result, with the team about to go into the mandatory two week hiatus, it is likely that it will be after the break that an announcement is forthcoming.
Speaking in Hungary however, the French team's sporting director, Alan Permane did at least admit that the young Australian will make his FP1 debut for the Enstone-based outfit at Spa later this month, or maybe Monza in September.
"We'll see Oscar in our car, either in Spa or Monza for the first time," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, as AlphaTauri boss, Franz Tost revealed that the Faenza-based outfit plans to run Liam Lawson at Spa, Ferrari's, Laurent Mekies confirmed that Robert Shwartzman is on standby whilst revealing the reason for teams' non-committal over the mandatory two Friday outings.
"We haven't exactly decided on which events it's going to be," he admitted.
With tracks like Singapore and Suzuka regarded as tricky, Alfa Romeo has said it doesn't want to do it on weekends when there's FP2 tyre testing, meaning that teams are running out of weekends to fit the two mandatory outings in.
"You are right in saying that you would not pick races like Singapore or races where the race drivers need more running," admitted Mekies. "(But) I don't think we have an issue in doing it during one of the weekends where we have Pirelli testing."