McLaren ‘very confident in our future’ but no Oscar Piastri announcement yet

Michelle Foster
Oscar Piastri, Alpine, smiles. United States, May 2022.

Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri smiles in Miami. United States, May 2022.

McLaren may have confirmed Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from the team, but his 2023 replacement will only be announced “in due course” says Zak Brown.

He is, however, “very confident” in McLaren’s plans.

McLaren made headlines at the beginning of F1’s summer break as they found themselves in the centre of not one but two driver sagas: McLaren versus Alpine for Piastri’s services and Piastri versus Ricciardo for a race seat.

The one that has been resolved, at least part way, with McLaren’s announcement that they and Ricciardo have agreed to part ways at the end of this season.

In a statement, McLaren said: “McLaren Racing and Daniel Ricciardo have mutually agreed that Daniel will leave the team at the end of the 2022 season.”

That is one year before the eight-time grand prix winner was meant to leave having joined McLaren last season on a three-year contract.

“We had a lot of discussions, but in the end, we mutually agreed that it was the right thing for both of us,” Ricciardo explained in an Instagram video. “I will continue to do the rest of this year, absolutely, and I’ll continue to give it my all.”

It is now thought to be just a matter of time before McLaren announced Piastri as Lando Norris’ 2023 team-mate.

But that comes with its own set of problem as Alpine believe they have a valid contract in place for the 21-year-old’s services.

Brown insists he is “very confident” about McLaren’s future line up.

“We are obviously very confident in our future, which we will announce in due course,” the McLaren CEO said as per Motorsport.com.

“We want to go to racing this weekend and the balance of the year, so we felt it was important to make the announcement today.

“It’s a very amicable and friendly relationship with Daniel, obviously disappointing to come to an end in this manner.

“But we reflect back on things like Monza which is my personal most exciting moment in my entire time here at McLaren, being on the podium with Daniel and Lando.

“So yes, disappointing outcome but we are excited for the balance of the year as is Daniel, and we will be announcing our future in due course.”

Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri stands in the garage between runs at the post-season test. Abu Dhabi December 2021.

Are McLaren waiting to resolve the Alpine-Piastri situation?

Yet to officially be named as the team fighting Alpine for Oscar Piastri’s services, it is thought McLaren may be waiting on the Aussie’s contract situation with his current team to be resolved before holding up their hand.

Alpine are convinced Piastri is their driver, so much so that Otmar Szafnauer says he’ll take it from F1’s Contract Recognition Board to the High Court if he has to.

Not necessarily to force the driver to race for Alpine, but rather to get compensation if he doesn’t as Alpine have backed Piastri for the past few seasons, spending millions on his development.

But what that number is he doesn’t know, the team boss saying the numbers people still need to do the sums.

McLaren are already down $25m for next season as that’s what they team is reportedly paying Ricciardo not to race for them. They will recoup some of that if the Aussie signs with another team, or even races into a different series.

They are also already involved in one driver contact saga over in America, the team announcing Alex Palou as one of their 2023 IndyCar drivers – and doing so hours after his current team, Chip Ganassi, said he’d be driving for them.

One driver contract saga is bad enough, two… well that doesn’t sound like good business does it?