All the pieces in Formula One appears greater and higher on this post-Drive to Survive period we’re in. The calendar is getting longer, the vehicles are sleeker, the protection is deeper, and the viewers are extra passionate than ever. Foolish season the annual driver market merry-go-round has not escaped these dramatic occasions in F1, with some unimaginable occasions following Sebastian Vettel’s retirement announcement.

In the event you haven’t stored updated, I really feel it’d be less complicated to catch you up on the lap-by-lap technique mess from Ferrari on the Hungaroring than the times following the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. In brief, Fernando Alonso will drive for Aston Martin in 2022, and nobody is aware of who will substitute him at Alpine. Alpine hoped it might be 2021 Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri, however Piastri has publicly said he is not going to be racing for Alpine in 2023.

An in depth evaluation of what has transpired might by no means occur, due to contracts the general public won’t ever see, and rumors that incorrectly turn out to be info. However, regardless of accuracy, F1’s summer season break exploded into life with one loopy storyline that the producers of Drive to Survive received’t have to exaggerate for dramatic impact. So let me attempt to element what we all know as reality earlier than we transfer on to what might nicely be fiction.

Sebastian Vettel is retiring from Formula One. The German four-time champion will bow out of the game he as soon as dominated with a whimper quite than a bang after his transfer to Aston Martin for the 2021 season. The timing was a shock, however the information was not a shock. Aston Martin hasn’t supplied a automotive that might constantly rating factors, not to mention podiums for his or her star signing, so it’s logical he wouldn’t wish to keep.

The a part of the Rube Goldberg machine that caught most off-guard was that Fernando Alonso was so fast to leap into the Vettel-shaped gap at Aston Martin. Inside a day of the summer season break, information broke that Alonso and Aston would be part of forces in 2023 and past on a multi-year deal that’ll see the Spanish driver racing in F1 till he’s no less than 43.

With Alonso leaving, Alpine despatched out a press launch the following day telling the world that Oscar Piastri, their long-time Academy driver, would step as much as F1 in 2023 to take the seat vacated by the Spaniard. That appeared logical, however inside hours, Piastri tweeted that Alpine didn’t ship the announcement together with his approval and he wouldn’t be racing at Alpine in 2023. Since then, neither Alpine nor Piastri has issued a public assertion, and F1 followers are on tenterhooks about what is going to occur subsequent.

The rumor mill means that Fernando Alonso and his outdated adversary Mark Webber, now Piastri’s supervisor, rapidly orchestrated all of the transferring components to embarrass Alpine. Alonso was allegedly annoyed by some feedback by Alpine Group Principal Otmar Szafnauer when the Spaniard criticized his automotive’s reliability and was unimpressed with the staff solely providing a one-year extension to his contract.

In the meantime, Webber and Piastri wished to be in F1 earlier than later and felt Alpine didn’t share the identical urgency. So, with each events sharing their employer as a typical enemy and Alonso and Webber’s lengthy historical past collectively, there’s actually some credibility to hypothesis they conspired to provide Alpine the center finger.

Deep into the realm of conjecture is that Alpine had an choice to retain Piastri so long as they discovered the younger Australian an F1 drive for 2023 earlier than August. Fernando Alonso declared he would be part of Aston Martin on the morning of August 1st, regardless of allegedly signing the contract two days earlier. May Alonso’s delay between signing and asserting have been to attend till Alpine’s choice to retain Piastri expired, releasing Piastri to search out one other drive? It’s attainable, and Alonso has an extended historical past in enjoying F1 politics.

To drop oil barrels on the fireplace, too, Fernando Alonso added a thumbs-up selfie to his Instagram story at his karting monitor in Spain inside minutes of Piastri’s notorious tweet. It could be a coincidence, however the Instagram story adopted an interview the place Otmar Szafnauer claimed he couldn’t attain the Spaniard as a result of he thought Alonso was “on a ship, I believe, within the Greek Isles someplace.” After all, Alonso being in a special nation with a working cellphone suggests Szafnauer’s calls had been going straight to voicemail. Alonso additionally had no problem mendacity to his employer about his whereabouts. What an sad household.

I doubt we’ll ever know the reality as a result of Alpine has a model to guard, and numerous non-disclosure agreements will stop Piastri and Alonso from explaining the finer factors of their contracts. Nevertheless, one reality is crystal clear: Alpine went from having an F1 champion and a highly-rated F1 rookie of their pocket to having neither inside two days. Even when the seemingly courtroom case guidelines in Alpine’s favor and Piastri should drive there, that’s quite a lot of unhealthy blood to start a working relationship with, and also you’d think about the 2 received’t wish to associate for too lengthy. The reputational harm is already finished.

Now all eyes are on the place Piastri heads for 2023, if anyplace. All information shops recommend McLaren is the staff he’ll land at, however Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris have contracts for subsequent 12 months, which means this saga is simply beginning. Might or not it’s for a reserve driver function, or will one Australian substitute one other? If that’s the case, the place will Ricciardo go? F1 could also be in a summer season break, however this sport’s motion by no means stops.