All Things Sports

This past weekend marked the Italian Grand Prix at the famous Monza circuit in the Formula 1 World Championship. Formula 1 is the premier series in motorsport racing and it has never been devoid of politics, drama, and controversy. It is a sport designed for those things and this summer provided us with another one of those classic dramas. This time it centered around a talented Australian driver named Oscar Piastri. Piastri is a highly regarded young driver who won back to back Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships with some regarding him as a future world champion. He is currently a reserve driver at Alpine, who have sponsored his development, but the drama surrounded his status for next year.

When Fernando Alonso announced his departure from Alpine, the team were quick to announce Piastri as his successor. However Piastri denied any claim that he was going to drive for the team in 2023, explicitly saying that there was no way he was going to drive for the team next year. This became the talk of the town and at first, I did think that Piastri was wrong for having made that response to the team, not because he said it wasn’t official but because he burned his bridges at Alpine by responding in the manner he did. By saying that he will not race for the team, he had effectively ruined any standing he had within the team. It soon came out that he believed that he had a valid contract to race at McLaren’s F1 team, who were getting rid of Daniel Ricciardo at the end of the year, so the dispute went to the FIA Contract Recognition Board or the CRB for short. They then ruled that the contract Piastri signed with McLaren on July 4th 2022 was valid and he was going to race then. However there was more to this.

After the ruling, it became clear that Piastri had notified Alpine of his impending departure prior to Alonso’s surprise exit and this side of the story made Alpine look much worse. They definitely came out of it worse, mostly due to the embarrassment and bad publicity, but they could share in this with Daniel Ricciardo. The date now becomes VERY important as it was July 4th, 2022, only a day after the British Grand Prix. However, Daniel Ricciardo had made his commitment to McLaren very clear on July 13th, 2022 in a post of his own on social media. This meant that it seemed that McLaren had chosen not to notify Ricciardo of the contract, and, at the time, he genuinely believed that he was staying at McLaren until the end of 2023. Although Alpine are definitely getting their fair share of backlash, I have not seen as much going towards McLaren, barring some Ricciardo fans on social media. They openly left their current driver, who is one of the best to come into the sport in the last decade, in the dark, something I believe no team should do. While he was struggling mightily at McLaren, that still doesn’t mean you can go behind his back and replace him. I do not believe that there are rules against, nor can any be made, but this is not how a team should operate.

Formula 1 is very political and very competitive, but that doesn’t excuse a lack of morality and due diligence. They did not give one of the most respected and popular drivers on the grid what he was due and that is the thing that really pisses me off in this situation. In short, I see the Piastri case not only as a silly season drama, but also as bad team policy in both areas of the paddock. A situation that was blown way out of proportions because teams did not act in a moral and due manner.