Oscar Piastri will replace Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren in 2023 after the FIA’s contract recognition board (CRB) upheld the team’s contract with the Formula 2 champion.
McLaren and Alpine both felt they had a valid contract for the Australian’s services for next season.
On Friday the CRB upheld McLaren’s contract, revealing he had signed a two-year contract on July 4., the day after the British Grand Prix.
Immediately after the verdict was released, McLaren announced Piastri would join the team in 2023.
Piastri is considered the best young driver to enter F1 since the 2019 rookie class of Lando Norris — who will be his teammate in 2023 — George Russell and Alex Albon.
Piastri said: “I’m extremely excited to be making my F1 debut with such a prestigious team as McLaren and I’m very grateful for the opportunity that’s been offered to me. The team has a long tradition of giving young talent a chance, and I’m looking forward to working hard alongside Lando to push the team towards the front of the grid.”
The news leaves Alpine without a replacement for Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso next year. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly has emerged as a leading contender for that seat, although Ricciardo, who’s imminent departure from McLaren opened the door for Piastri to join, is still in the mix.
If Alpine wants Gasly they will have to pay Red Bull to buy out the final year of the French driver’s deal.
Alpine released a short statement after the verdict, saying: “We consider the matter closed on our side and will announce our full 2023 driver line-up in due course.”
It is a humiliating setback for Alpine, having lost a long-time member of its driver academy after laying out an extensive Formula One testing programme at great expense for him this year.
The dispute kicked off over Formula One’s summer break after Aston Martin confirmed the signing of Alonso for 2023.
Alpine academy product Piastri, considered to be a star of the future, seemed like the most logical option to fill that gap and Alpine quickly announced him to be stepping up to the F1 team for next year, although it was notable the press release came with no quote from a driver just handed his F1 debut.
Two hours later, Piastri sent a now-famous Tweet: “I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”
Piastri’s manager Mark Webber played a key role in the discussions with McLaren. Webber worked with McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl when he was in charge of Porsche’s World Endurance Championship team. Under Seidl’s leadership, Webber was part of the team which won the WEC title in 2016.
With both Alpine and McLaren convinced they had a valid contract with Piastri, the matter went to the contract recognition board (CRB).
The CRB was set up in 1992 to deal with a dispute between Jordan and Benetton over Michael Schumacher’s services, which was won by Benetton. It has been called upon rarely in F1 since, but it settled a British American Racing and Williams dispute over Jenson Button in 2004, which BAR won, and a Toyota and BMW dispute over Timo Glock in 2007, which Toyota won.
Lewis Hamilton has condemned three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet for using a racial slur about him in an interview.
The 69-year-old Brazilian used the derogatory term in a podcast in Portuguese following last year’s British Grand Prix, when title rivals Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided on the first lap at Silverstone. The podcast came to light this week.
Piquet, who is the father of Verstappen’s girlfriend, Kelly, used a racist term about Hamilton while accusing him of mishandling his car into the first corner. Piquet added Hamilton was “lucky” to continue in the race.
The seven-time world champion said on Twitter on Tuesday: “It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life.
“There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.”
He also tweeted in Portuguese: “Let’s focus on changing the mindset.”
On Tuesday, F1 also condemned the term used by Piquet in a statement that read: “Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society. Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect.
“His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”
Additionally, Hamilton’s team, Mercedes, issued a statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms any use of racist or discriminatory language of any kind. Lewis has spearheaded our sport’s efforts to combat racism, and he is a true champion of diversity on and off track.
“Together, we share a vision for a diverse and inclusive motorsport, and this incident underlines the fundamental importance of continuing to strive for a brighter future.”
Lewis Hamilton has condemned three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet for using a racial slur about him in an interview.
The 69-year-old Brazilian used the derogatory term in a podcast in Portuguese following last year’s British Grand Prix, when title rivals Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided on the first lap at Silverstone. The podcast came to light this week.
Piquet, who is the father of Verstappen’s girlfriend, Kelly, used a racist term about Hamilton while accusing him of mishandling his car into the first corner. Piquet added Hamilton was “lucky” to continue in the race.
The seven-time world champion said on Twitter on Tuesday: “It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life.
“There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.”
He also tweeted in Portuguese: “Let’s focus on changing the mindset.”
On Tuesday, F1 also condemned the term used by Piquet in a statement that read: “Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society. Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect.
“His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”
Additionally, Hamilton’s team, Mercedes, issued a statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms any use of racist or discriminatory language of any kind. Lewis has spearheaded our sport’s efforts to combat racism, and he is a true champion of diversity on and off track.
“Together, we share a vision for a diverse and inclusive motorsport, and this incident underlines the fundamental importance of continuing to strive for a brighter future.”
Lewis Hamilton has condemned three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet for using a racially abusive term about him in an interview.
The 69-year-old Brazilian used the derogatory term in a podcast in Portuguese following last year’s British Grand Prix, when title rivals Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided on the first lap at Silverstone. The podcast came to light this week.
Piquet, who is the father of Verstappen’s girlfriend, Kelly, used a racist term about Hamilton while accusing him of mishandling his car into the first corner. Piquet added Hamilton was “lucky” to continue in the race.
The seven-time world champion said on Twitter on Tuesday: “It’s more than language. These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life.
“There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.”
He also tweeted in Portuguese: “Let’s focus on changing the mindset.”
On Tuesday, F1 also condemned the term used by Piquet in a statement that read: “Discriminatory or racist language is unacceptable in any form and has no part in society. Lewis is an incredible ambassador for our sport and deserves respect.
“His tireless efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are a lesson to many and something we are committed to at F1.”
Additionally, Hamilton’s team, Mercedes, issued a statement: “We condemn in the strongest terms any use of racist or discriminatory language of any kind. Lewis has spearheaded our sport’s efforts to combat racism, and he is a true champion of diversity on and off track.
“Together, we share a vision for a diverse and inclusive motorsport, and this incident underlines the fundamental importance of continuing to strive for a brighter future.”
Ferrari suffered a nightmare double retirement at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to hand another huge opportunity to Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
Ferrari had claimed pole position through Charles Leclerc on Saturday, with Carlos Sainz starting fourth, but within just 20 laps of Sunday’s race both its cars were out of the race.
Sainz retired from fourth position on Lap 9 with what the team later confirmed to be a hydraulic issue.
Leclerc had been beaten to Turn 1 by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez but was on a different strategy to both Perez and Verstappen thanks to a well-timed stop under a Virtual Safety Car.
Any chance of a spectacular fightback for Leclerc was thwarted on Lap 20 when smoke poured from the back of his Ferrari.
Leclerc immediately returned to the pits and retired the car, with what Ferrari confirmed was a power unit issue.
“It hurts,” Leclerc told Sky Sports shortly after his race ended. “We need to look into it so it doesn’t happen again. I don’t find the right words to describe. It’s really disappointing. We need to look into it.”
Ferrari also saw two customer cars suffer failures, with Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen both retiring midway through the race.
The team will only have seven days to get on top of its issues before racing again at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Leclerc was already nine points down on Verstappen in the championship. Verstappen was leading the race and had the fastest lap when Leclerc’s race ended, meaning the reigning world champion could extend that lead to 35 points by the end of the race.
If Perez finishes second, he will also leap past Leclerc in the championship standings.
Leclerc’s once-promising season has fallen apart in recent races. At the Monaco Grand Prix, his home race, a Ferrari strategy turned a likely victory into a fourth place finish.
Despite claiming six pole positions from eight races this year, Leclerc has only converted two of them into victory — his last this season was at the Australian Grand Prix on April 10.
Reliability issues had been a Red Bull problem at the start of the season. Verstappen’s car failed to finish two of the first three races and after the Melbourne race the Dutchman was 47 points behind Leclerc.
MONTE CARLO — Mick Schumacher walked away unharmed from a big crash at the Monaco Grand Prix that prompted the second red flag of the event.
A downpour just before the scheduled start delayed the race by 70 minutes, and it eventually got going on a drying track.
Drivers had just completed the switch from the full and intermediate wet tyres to dry tyres when Schumacher, running 17th, lost control of his car through the Swimming Pool section and slammed into the wall on the exit of the chicane.
Schumacher’s rear suspension and rear wing completely detached from the Haas car.
Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, immediately climbed out of the car and walked back to the Haas garage.
Curiously, the race stewards cycled through all three of the options available to them in the case of a crash as marshals looked to clear the wreckage.
First, they implemented the virtual safety car, in which drivers are required to drive slowly to a delta time.
The actual safety car was then deployed two minutes later, which requires the field to bottle up behind a pace car.
Just six minutes later, the race was suspended with a red flag to allow marshals to fix the barrier Schumacher had gone into.
When the race resumed, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez led a rolling start.
Daniel Ricciardo has not delivered the results hoped for in Formula One, McLaren boss Zak Brown said on Friday after announcing that their IndyCar team had extended their agreement with Pato O’Ward, who is eyeing a Formula One seat.
McLaren took care of a bit of business ahead of Sunday’s Indy 500 by extending O’Ward’s contract through the end of 2025 in a deal that will include some F1 testing for the 23-year-old from Mexico and a new McLaren sports car as a signing on bonus.
McLaren’s commitment to O’Ward will come as a warning to an underperforming Ricciardo, who has managed one points finish in six F1 races this season and had a nightmare start to Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix by crashing in Friday’s practice.
The Australian is under contract through 2023 but Brown said there are “mechanisms” in place that could impact negotiations.
“We’ve got both our drivers under contract so nothing imminent but we’re starting a testing program bringing a couple of drivers in and Pato is definitely going to be one of those,” said Brown, who is in Indianapolis where Arrow McLaren will have three cars in Sunday’s race.
“I don’t want to get into the contract but there are mechanisms which we’re committed to each other and then there are mechanisms which we’re not.
“I spoke to Daniel about it. We’re not getting the results we hoped for but we’re both going to continue to push.
“I think he showed at Monza he can win races. We also need to continue to develop our race car. It is not capable of winning races but we’d like to see him further up the grid.”
O’Ward has also shown a winner’s touch by collecting three victories, four poles and nine podiums since signing on with Arrow McLaren in 2020.
O’Ward, who will start Sunday’s race from seventh on the grid, has set himself a deadline of two years to realise his F1 dream which matches up nicely with his McLaren deal.
“I think the deadline is there just because of age. Once you are 25, 26 that window closes quite a bit,” said O’Ward, who will take home Brown’s Richard Mille watch as a bonus if he wins the 500.
“Obviously, if the opportunity comes about you have to take it. The dream of becoming a racing driver came about from Formula One so that is nothing that is ever going to leave. It is part of me.
“When you want something so much it is hard to block it out of your mind. At the end of the day what is going to make this guy [Brown] want me more is win more.”
PARIS, France — Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff will not attend the FIA’s prize giving ceremony in Paris on Thursday evening, Wolff confirmed.
The decision not to attend comes in the wake of Mercedes’ decision not to appeal the result of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Max Verstappen take the title victory from Hamilton in controversial circumstances on the final lap of the race.
Under Article 6.6 of Formula One’s sporting regulations, the top three drivers in the championship are required to attend the ceremony to pick up trophies, but following the events of the last few days Hamilton, who finished second, has decided not to attend.
Wolff was invited to Paris to pick up the constructors’ trophy, which Mercedes won for the eighth year in a row, but also decided not to attend. It is understood Mercedes chief technical officer, James Allison, will pick up the trophy on the team’s behalf.
In a statement on Thursday morning, Mercedes confirmed it would withdraw its intention to appeal the result of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but that it plans to hold the FIA accountable for the events in Abu Dhabi. The FIA said on Wednesday it would investigate the final laps as part of a “clarification exercise”, which Mercedes and other F1 teams will be a part of.
Mercedes was furious at how the race finished, after FIA race director Michael Masi appeared to ignore certain parts of the sporting regulations in order to ensure the title battle was decided by one final lap of racing after several laps behind the safety car.
The hasty restart, which saw only the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves, gave Verstappen the opportunity to pass Hamilton on the final lap, helping him secure the championship with a race victory.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team protested the race results after the chequered flag, with a focus on the articles of the sporting regulations that had been ignored to get racing back underway for one final lap.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – There was immediate controversy in Formula One’s title decider as Max Verstappen seemed to be denied the lead of the race by a stewards’ decision.
Lewis Hamilton got the jump on Verstappen at the start into Turn 1 but Verstappen closed in on his title rival in down the back straight leading to Turn 4.
With Hamilton leaving the door on the inside open, Verstappen made a very late attempt on the inside. His move appeared to be late but fair, with his braking timed well enough to make the corner.
To avoid a collision, Hamilton went straight on and drove over the run-off area, rejoining slightly up the road. In doing so, he retained the lead.
“He has to give that back,” Verstappen immediately said on the radio.
Two laps later, the FIA stewards confirmed they felt no investigation was necessary.
Red Bull’s Jonathan Wheatley radioed FIA race director Michael Masi to ask why, saying the team felt it was an “aggressive” but “fair.” Masi told Red Bull said the stewards felt Hamilton had given back any lasting advantage.
When told there was no penalty, Verstappen said on the radio: “That is incredible. What are they doing here?”
LUSAIL, Qatar – Momentum is a fickle force at this stage of a Formula One world championship.
Rewind two weeks to the Monday after the Mexican Grand Prix and momentum promised to carry Max Verstappen to his first F1 title. Return to the present day, and it has swung behind Lewis Hamilton off the back of two dominant wins in Brazil and Qatar and looks set to deliver a record-breaking eighth world championship.
In truth, the 2021 title battle hangs in the balance. With two races remaining, Verstappen leads Hamilton by eight points in the standings after conceding 11 at the last two races. If current form holds true, Hamilton will win the title. If it teeters just slightly in either Saudi Arabia or Abu Dhabi, it will be Verstappen’s.
The two most recent races in Brazil and Qatar have undoubtedly suited Hamilton’s Mercedes car. So much so that the performance of Verstappen’s Red Bull looked unrecognisable from one week in Mexico to the next in Brazil.
Such dramatic swings in performance tied to such huge consequences in the championship inevitably lead to suspicion and accusations. Both are natural — and unfortunate — byproducts of a competitive title run-in, and they have only been amplified in recent weeks by the intensity of holding three consecutive race weekends across three different continents.
In Qatar, where the triple-header was capped off by a commanding Hamilton victory, Verstappen’s Red Bull team undoubtedly wobbled. From a points perspective, the weekend was a relative success, with Verstappen minimising the loss to Hamilton in the drivers’ championship with second place while Red Bull closed the gap to Mercedes to five points. But off the track, the battle cries coming from the Red Bull camp sounded increasingly desperate.
The war of words between team bosses Christian Horner and Toto Wolff has provided a consuming subplot to the 2021 season, but also an insight into the confidence each team holds an any one time. Hearts are worn on sleeves alongside Swiss watches and tech sponsors in F1, and it’s common for emotions to overflow. In Qatar, the battle of the bosses hit a new height, leaving Red Bull looking bruised but not quite beaten.
Horner notched up an early victory in the race weekend when, on Friday, the FIA denied Mercedes’ request to review an incident between Verstappen and Hamilton in Brazil. The two drivers went wheel-to-wheel into Turn 4 on lap 48 of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, only for Verstappen to leave his braking too late and force Hamilton wide.
Horner correctly predicted Mercedes’ case for a review of the incident would not satisfy the requirements set out by the FIA. New evidence, in the form of previously unseen footage from Verstappen’s onboard camera, was not be considered “significant” enough to reopen the case, meaning the move stood as a “racing incident”.
The timing of Horner’s vindication could not have been more sweet for Red Bull, as the stewards’ decision dropped midway through a televised news conference in which he was sat alongside Wolff. The Mercedes man attempted to shrug it off, but this was an early win for Horner.
Yet the Red Bull team boss was intent on diverting the focus away from his driver’s actions in Brazil and towards the legality of Mercedes’ car. Convinced Hamilton had a straight-line speed advantage from a flexing rear wing in Sao Paulo, Horner took the opportunity to point out “score” marks on the inside of the Mercedes’ rear endplates.
Red Bull’s theory was that these marks were a result of the main plane of the rear wing flexing under aerodynamic load, which in turn reduced drag, increased top speed and explained Hamilton’s apparent speed advantage in Brazil. It was a serious accusation as flexible bodywork that can be construed as a moveable aerodynamic device is outlawed under F1’s regulations. Wolff hit back the next day by saying Horner was “chasing ghosts”, but the comments were enough to cast doubt over the legality of the Mercedes in the build up to the race.
On Saturday evening, the wing passed a newly introduced deflection test set by the FIA as part of a “fact finding” mission for next year’s regulations. Flexible bodywork is likely to be a major battle ground under F1’s all-new regulations for 2022, and the introduction of the test in Qatar, which includes a more stringent load test on the rear wing main plane, doubled as a bellwether for Red Bull’s accusations.
As well as passing the test, detailed photos from alternative angles of the Mercedes rear wing suggested the apparent scuff marks may in fact a different weave of carbon fibre in the construction of the endplate. Two different weaves on the endplate where the main plane joins it could, under certain light and at certain angles, look like marks against the surface of the carbon fibre.
On race day, Horner was satisfied the speed differential between Mercedes and Red Bull was back in line with expectations, even though Red Bull still appeared to have a deficit of around 8 km/h to the Mercedes. Red Bull had suffered rear wing issues of its own in Qatar during practice when the rear wing’s DRS flap oscillated when open. The problem had been observed at a number of previous rounds during practice sessions, but rather than repair the wing as it had done in the past, Red Bull fitted a larger wing with more drag and downforce in Qatar for qualifying and the race.
The swap of Red Bull’s wing specification slightly skewed the picture from the outside, but after two days of claiming Mercedes’ rear wing was suspicious, Horner changed his tune on Sunday night.
“I think that it is now well policed and the tests that have been introduced should eradicate any ability to circumnavigate [the rules],” Horner said. “I think what we have seen at recent races [before Qatar] was a significant increase in straight-line speed.
“Toto has been at pains to point out that they have gained straight-line speed but nothing has changed, so it’s encouraging that this is the first race since prior to Silverstone that we have been able to match them for straight-line speed and, as I said, it’s been exponential at recent races.”
Mercedes maintained throughout the Brazil weekend that any gains in straight-line speed came from the introduction of a fresh engine rather than any rear wing trickery. Hamilton took a five-place grid penalty at Interlagos in order to introduce the fresh engine into his pool of usable engines for the remainder of the year, but in Qatar Mercedes decided to use an older, less powerful unit. Chief trackside engineer Andrew Shovlin said the new engine would return in Saudi Arabia.
“There are two engines that we are racing, and here [in Qatar] we had the less powerful of the two in the car, due to the nature of the circuit,” Shovlin said. “If we look at the track in Saudi, I think it should suit us – for Lewis, we have got the more powerful engine to go in the car, so that should give him a useful boost.”
We may never know if there was any truth to Horner’s accusations about Mercedes’ rear wing, but the balance of evidence seems to suggest they were misplaced. If Mercedes regains its straight-line speed advantage in Saudi Arabia they may resurface, but Mercedes will no doubt point to the return of the fresh engine.
Horner’s weekend could have ended there with a semi-debunked accusation and six lost points in the drivers’ championship. However, on Verstappen’s final lap in qualifying, the championship leader failed to observe double-waved yellow flags at a marshal post on the outside of the final corner and was hit with a five-place grid penalty.
The penalty moved the Red Bull from second on the grid, alongside Hamilton on the front row, to seventh, behind the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas (who got a three-place penalty for ignoring single-waved yellow flags). Horner argued against the decision, saying the flags were being waved by a “rogue marshal” who was working at odds with the central marshalling system, which was not showing the sector of track as yellow on the team’s data.
Singling out the marshal and suggesting he had acted incorrectly, when he was in fact reacting to Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri stopping on track in front of him, did not go down well with the FIA. Race director Michael Masi referred Horner to the stewards, who summoned the Red Bull boss after the race and issued him with a warning for breaking the FIA’s International Sporting Code. Horner apologised to the marshal in question and offered to join an FIA stewarding course next year as a peace offering. It was an embarrassing end to a difficult weekend.
Asked on Sunday evening if he regretted any of the events in Qatar, Horner said: “No not at all.”
“I believe in my team, I’m a straight talker and I’ve always conducted myself in that manner. I’m not an overly emotional person and I don’t rant at cameras.
“I think the way I have conducted myself, I’ve got no issues with and I would do exactly the same. I think the only issue was regarding any marshal and if there was any personal offence taken for referencing a rogue yellow flag and it was not intended to be aimed at any individual or marshal.
“I don’t know if you heard the interview I gave this morning, but I didn’t think it was unreasonable.”
Say what you want about Horner, but he won’t back down. Red Bull hardly covered itself in glory in Qatar, but Horner will not go down without a fight.
“It’s going to be tight,” he said. “The next track arguably should favour Mercedes and Abu Dhabi, with the modifications made [to the track] there, who knows?
“We’ve been round the world over the last three weekends and we have pretty much finished where we have started with the points difference. It’s that close, it’s incredibly close.
“Mercedes have got a very quick car at the moment over the last two weekends. In Mexico, the pendulum was with us, in Austin there was nothing to choose between the two and I’m glad to be taking an eight point advantage into the next race.
“So we have just got to do the best that we can to maximise our chances. I think I said at the beginning of this championship that it would go all the way to Abu Dhabi and I haven’t changed my opinion.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes considers itself on a roll and is determined to keep it going to the final race.
“I think I never stopped believing that this was on, because we had such a strong race in Turkey before it obviously fell back below our expectations in Austin and in Mexico,” Wolff said. “Anyone in the team refuses to give up. I’m grateful how the championship has swung.
“If you had told me at the start of the year that we’d be right in the fight in Saudi and Abu Dhabi I would have taken it. I hope that’s going to go all the way to the end and whoever will win merits the win.”