PIASTRI UNLIKELY TO GET ALFA F1 SEAT

With the Haas F1 team set to retain its two drivers for 2022, only one drive remains vacant, the second Alfa Romeo Racing seat alongside Valtteri Bottas.

Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion and FIA Formula 2 championship leader, Australian Oscar Piastri, is one of many people linked to the seat but how much truth is there to the speculation?

There are many drivers in contention for the F1 seat in 2022 including current driver Antonio Giovinazzi, Formula 2 Championship front-runner Guanyu Zhou, and F2 debutant Theo Pourchaire.

Piastri’s name has also been thrown in the ring, however the Australian himself admits that a move into F1 is unlikely for 2022 as he has had no formal conversations with Alfa Romeo.

“I would be extremely surprised if it’s me that ends up in the seat,” Piastri told Auto Action.

“I haven’t personally been in any discussions and there’s not been any discussions that I know of.

“I think at this point, if that’s the situation we’re in, it sort of paints a pretty bleak picture on getting that seat, so I don’t think it’s mine for the taking, unfortunately.”

A disappointed Piastri however explained that jumping into an Alfa is certainly not the normal route into F1 for an Alpine junior like himself or Zhou.

“Being with Alpine obviously there is no engine link to Alfa (which runs with Ferrari power units) so it’s not a very conventional path to getting that seat and (could be) potentially quite messy on that side of things.

“So yeah, I would be very pleasantly surprised if it’s me, but, I’m certainly not banking on it.”

Despite being an Alpine driver, Zhou is reportedly throwing everything at Alfa Romeo to get the seat.

While Pourchaire is a Sauber Academy driver, at the age of just 18, the question is will the F2 front-runner be ready for F1?

Although it is unlikely that Piastri will be on the F1 grid next year, it is expected that the Victorian will take part in several practice sessions as F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn explained leading into Monza.

His plan is to get all teams to run rookie drivers in a select number of practice sessions in 2022,

“They’ll need to run a young driver on Friday, every team, a certain number of occasion each year,” Brawn said. “We’re being very careful about how we define a rookie to make sure.”

As an Alpine Accademy driver this is very positive news for Piastri.

“I certainly hope (to take part in several sessions next year), I don’t really know what the plan is for next year,” Piastri confessed to AA.

“It still sort of somewhat depends how the rest of this year goes, but that’s an exciting prospect and it’s good to see F1 take that initiative and getting the younger guys, some more running, hopefully, if they go through with it.

“Obviously, it depends what happens with Zhou and whether he stays or leaves to Alfa. I don’t know what his situation is, but I’d like to think I’m the first on the list to get those practice sessions, which would be very cool!”

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