There are two grand prix left before the summer break of the World Championship and the ‘silly season’ is accelerating, with the three drivers in the spotlight
Alonso negotiates his renewal with Alpine, which is not clear, while Vettel points to a possible withdrawal and Ricciardo sees his seat threatened by Palou
There are two grands prix left, France this week and Hungary the next, before Formula 1 reaches its summer male, which will be shorter than MotoGP (they will return to action in Spa from August 26 to 28) and it will surely ‘unlock’ the driver market for 2023 and beyond. With several teams looking for a new tandem and many contracts that expire at the end of the season, these days will be especially decisive in future negotiations.
Right now there are three drivers, three important names on the grid, who have the key to the market: Fernando Alonso (40 years), Sebastian Vettel (35) y Daniel Ricciardo (33). The Australian is the only one of them who has a valid contract for next year, although his continuity at McLaren is not at all clear, to the point that the pilot himself has had to claim his seat on social networks, ensuring that the continuous rumors about possible successors, especially after the signing of Álex Palou by McLaren, do not affect his commitment to the Woking team.
The Palou ‘bomb’
true that Ricciardo He has a contract for 2023 but F1 teams always keep an ‘ace’ up their sleeve with release clauses. In addition, after 11 grand prix, the Australian driver has seven races out of the points and only 17 points in his locker (compared to 64 for his teammate Lando Norris), while his salary is one of the highest (it is estimated at about 13 million for the 4.5 that Norris receives). With PalouMcLaren already has three Indy drivers on the payroll. Pato O’Ward, who tested the MCL35M in Abu Dhabi, and Colton Herta, who made his debut last week with a test in Portimao. Palou has also been promised to get into F1 as a test driver, but no one escapes the fact that his case is special.
The Indy champion has ‘planted’ the best team on the grid in the American series and has even confronted its powerful owner, Chip Gannassi, by denying him when he announced his renewal. Regardless of McLaren’s economic proposal, the Barcelona driver would not close the doors of the best structure in Indy, with which he won the title last year, if he did not have certain guarantees that his adventure in Woking can give him a chance to get to F1, either next season or in 2024 when the agreement with Ricciardo.
The doubts of Alonso and Alpine
Last week, in Austria, Fernando Alonso He hinted that the negotiations to renew with Alpine were well on track and assured that in the French team, with which under the acronym of Renault he won his two world titles (2005 and 2006), he felt “like family”. But after the problems of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring, where he was unable to start the sprint race on Saturday due to a failure in the electrical control unit and then lost several places in his comeback on Sunday due to strategy, the doubts they resurfaced. Especially after the team manager Otmar Szafnauer put on the table the name of Oscar Piastrithe young F3 and F2 champion who is currently Alpine’s reserve driver.
“Piastri already has potential for F1. We haven’t made a decision on the second driver yet, but I have no doubt that he is ready. Here he has all the atmosphere, the atmosphere, the employees and the car that he needs,” he warned. Szafnauerwho also wanted to make it clear that not all the problems of Alonso this year it’s down to the reliability of his car: “It’s not that we’re failing Fernando. There are a variety of reasons why he’s not scoring points. I remember Mick Schumacher hitting him and the sidepod coming loose. I remember the defense in Canada against Bottas and the penalty, or the penalty in Miami. There are all kinds of things,” he said.
The Spaniard did not like his boss’s words, especially the term “second driver”, but wanted to maintain a cautious tone: “In the next few weeks or whenever, I will sit down with the team and see what their expectations are, find out what It’s the next step in the project. I feel happy. I feel at home in Alpine. But nothing is 100 percent guaranteed.”
Vettel’s future
Mark Webberex Red Bull, is now the agent of his compatriot Piastriwhom everyone places in Williams, on loan from Alpine, as a replacement for Latifalthough without ruling out a turn of events that could leave him as a companion of Ocon in 2023 if the departure of Alonso. Also in the field of speculation, there are those who place Fernando not Aston Martin si Vettel decides to put an end to his sports career.
The German, four-time world champion with Red Bull, did not achieve his goal of succeeding at Ferrari and after five seasons at Maranello (the last and most fateful he finished 13th in the championship), he left for Aston Martin under the promise of a strong injection that would put the team of Lawrence Stroll in leading positions. But the reality has been quite different. The results have not followed Vettel He is 14th in the standings with only 15 points and rumors about his retirement have exploded, although ‘Seb’ has not commented on the matter.
This is the grill for 2023
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton y George Russell
McLaren: Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo
Alpine: Esteban Ocon and to be confirmed (current driver: Fernando Alonso)
Alpha Tauri: Pierre Gasly and to confirm (current pilot: Yuki Tsunona)
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll and to be confirmed (current driver: Sebastian Vettel)
Related news
Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas and to be confirmed (current driver: Guanyu Zhou)
Williams: Alex Albon and to be confirmed (current driver: Nicholas Latifi)