Hamilton RETIREMENT to Start Domino Effect as Schumacher and Ricciardo futures in doubt…?

By Joe Man

It’s been the silliest of seasons so far after Fernando Alonso’s shock move to Aston Martin. At this point not a lot makes sense as to where some drivers will be in 2023. Rumours are flying in all directions so it’s time to do our best to figure out what on earth is going on. 

It all started with Sebastian Vettel decision to call it a day on his F1 career. While it came as somewhat of a surprise, the writing on the wall had been there for sometime. When he joined Aston Martin he would have hoped that he would have been given a car that at the very least would have been top 10 regularly. As it turned out the car is nowhere and although the team has seemingly endless money, they don’t seem to be finding any results. All of which makes Alonso’s decision to join the team bizarre to say the least. At Alpine he has a car this year that is arguably the 4th fastest on the grid. At 41 years old even if he has what’s rumoured to be a 3 year deal, its hard to see him and Aston Martin getting any higher than he currently is with Alpine.
All of these events lead to what we all thought would happen and Alpine would simply replace him with their super talented young reserve driver Oscar Piastri.

As we know now Piastri instantly turned down the seat at Alpine in one of the strangest twists in years.
Where then is Piastri actually going and how bad are things at Alpine?
On paper Alpine are giving Mclaren a run for fourth in the constructors championship this year and things look pretty good. How then can you lose Alonso and Piastri in one week? Things behind the scenes must be really bad at the French team. Clearly the drivers have no faith that they are going to improve over the next few years and they all want out.
Piastri is one of the most exciting talents to come into the sport and for him to turn down a competitive race seat says it all.
So, where is he going?

The overwhelming favourites now seem to be McLaren to replace fellow Australian Daniel Riccardo. The rumour mill is all over this story and at this stage its very hard to see what’s true and what isn’t. Its reported that Alpine are going to fight Piastri’s decision in court as they feel they have invested in him and he doesn’t have the right to walk away. For Alpine however even if they where to win in court all they get is the services of a young driver who has already shown he doesn’t want to be there. If the stories are true and Piastri does sign for McLaren it then begs the question of what happens to Riccardo. The obvious move for Daniel is to go back to Alpine only two years after leaving them when they where still racing under the Renault name. Again the team would have to be ok with the fact that Riccardo also left the team before and his loyalty would have to be in question.

All of this we have to remember is still just rumours at this stage however Piastri wouldn’t have turned down Alpine unless his management team have got him a equal or better opportunity somewhere else. If it turns out that it isn’t McLaren then the only other viable team would be Alpha Tauri to replace Yuki Tsunoda. Although the team are also well below both Alpine and McLaren it would be a temporary drive with a promise to replace Sergio Perez in the Red Bull. For the first time in a while there does not seem to be an irresistible talent coming from the Red Bull junior program in F2 so the Red bull bosses may be thinking that Piastri is one to snap up now. Perez has a contract until 2024 so it would give them the opportunity to observe Piastri in the junior team and have him there ready whenever they decide to move Perez on. We have seen before that red bull won’t hang around if the time is right.

So it looks like it has to be either Mclaren or Alpha Tauri for Piastri. Although there are seats available at Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams it wouldn’t make any sense to go there unless one of those teams has some miracle plan we haven’t seen.
Its going to make the battle between Mclaren and Alpine the most fascinating action for the rest of the season. Alpine will have Alonso with no desire to follow team orders and will race with no feelings of responsibility to the team. Its highly likely it will be the same with Riccardo at Mclaren just maybe even more bitter.
Its hard to see what other options Alpine have if Piastri is gone and they don’t want Ricaardo back. One option is to try to tempt Pierre Gasly away from Alpha Tauri. It would make sense for Gasly if he has the option to get away from the Red bull family as it appears to be going nowhere for him. It would give the French team an all French driver line up with Ocon already there however is rumoured the two don’t get along and we have already seen that Esteban is not afraid to race a teammate on the edge of what acceptable.
All things considered Alpine are in a real mess and have very little options. Mclaren won’t be enjoying this situation either but they have many options even if Riccardo and Piastri don’t work out. Its going to be fascinating to see how this works out.
Like every driver Oscar Piastri and his team are looking to get him into a championship winning car. If you look at it this way then trying to get into Alpha Tauri makes the most sense. 1 year and straight into Red Bull with only Max Verstappen to beat! Chuck the dubious future of Mick Schumacher into the mix and you have all sorts of conundrums.

One outside possibility is that they are chasing Lewis Hamiltons Mercedes seat whenever the champion decides to retire. If that was the case then his best bet might be the Mercedes powered Williams team.
McLaren could well be still fighting it out in the midfield with the likes of Alpine for years to come with no garuntee of getting closer to the top. Would you really risk all this drama for a seat that will likely be in the same place as Alpine? We can only wait to find out!