Alpine is now targeting Pierre Gasly, not Oscar Piastri, for its second seat in 2023, Sky Sports claim.
A decision by Formula 1’s Contract Recognition Board is due before Thursday in the dispute between Alpine and McLaren over which team has the right to Piastri next year.
During the summer break, the Australian was announced as Fernando Alonso’s replacement in 2023, only for Oscar to deny he will drive for the Enstone-based outfit.
That’s because Piastri signed a deal with McLaren in Hungary to take the seat of Daniel Ricciardo, who last week confirmed he and the team had mutually agreed to part ways.
But Alpine remains certain they have a legal contract in place with the Formula 2 champion and team boss Otmar Szafnauer was critical of Piastri in a press conference at Spa.
“My wish for Oscar was he had a bit more integrity,” he said.
“He signed a bit of paper back in November and we’ve done everything on our end of the bargain to prepare him for Formula 1 and his end of the bargain was to either drive for us or take a seat where we would place him for the next three years.
“I just wish Oscar would have remembered what he signed in November, what he signed up to.
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“There was no July 31st deadline in his contract. It is a contract until the end of 2023 with an option for 2024,” Szafnauer added.
“I’ll just say those things, there’s a lot more in it. As I said, I don’t really like to talk about the specifics.”
But as a result of the dispute, Sky Sports’ Craig Slater reports Alpine have moved on from Piastri and wants to create an all-French line-up of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon next year.
Though Red Bull has long insisted the AlphaTauri driver will see out his current contract until the end of next year, there has been a growing acceptance that Gasly will eventually leave.
And Alpine hopes a victory in the CRB case and potential compensation for its investment in Piastri can be used to buy out the 26-year-old’s contract early.
Asked about the rumours in Belgium, Pierre was diplomatic.
“At the moment, I don’t really want to make too many comments because I haven’t seen anything yet,” he said.
Gasly though did acknowledge he is excited to finally be in control over his F1 future.
“I think you’ve got to be open,” he told Motorsport.com on his mindset as it stands for 2024. “There’s got to be a conversation, obviously with Red Bull, and they’ll be the first ones to know what’s the situation.
“But of course, it’s also the first time in my career that I actually get the option of deciding what’s going to happen.
“It’s still early, we’re still mid-2022. At the right moment, we’ll assess what are the best options for the future.”
