04/08/2022
NEWS STORY
Alpine boss, Otmar Szafnauer has said the French team would be willing to take Daniel Ricciardo should the Australian lose his seat to countryman Oscar Piastri.
All idea of a quiet, restful summer break went out the window on Tuesday amidst a flurry of press releases and social media posts surrounding the future of the reigning F1 champion.
With the dust having settled - for now - it remains to be seen where we go from here, with many suggesting yesterday's activity is set to kick-start the mother of all games of F1 musical chairs.
With Piastri thought to be heading to McLaren, the obvious question is whither Ricciardo?
The most obvious answer is Alpine, however it was whilst he was with the French outfit - then Renault - on a reputed £20m a year, that he sought to jump ship to McLaren.
Alpine boss, Otmar Szafnauer insists there are no hard feelings and the Enstone-based outfit would be willing to take the Australian back if necessary - though presumably on a much reduced salary.
Indeed, Szafnauer compares Ricciardo to Fernando Alonso in that he is one of the sport's nomads.
"If you look at Fernando, for example, he comes and goes, and I think that happens to other drivers too," said the American, according to Motorsport.com.
"I don't think that's an issue at all," he added. "I think what we need to focus on is, like I say, the plans that we have for the next 89-88 races. We've got to make sure that we complement that plan with the best driver that we can, and there are some options out there for us. And we put the best driver in next to Esteban, so that we can move forward towards what we've been planning."
Szafnauer compares the situation to Jenson Button in 2004, when Williams and BAR-Honda were involved in a legal tussle over the driver's services.
"I've been around long enough where I've seen this kind of thing actually play out and happen," said Szafnauer, who was with Honda at the time. "When Jenson signed with Williams and ended up at British American Racing Honda, if you remember those days, there was absolutely no issue. I mean, I know Oscar is different from Jenson. Hopefully we don't have to go down that route, anyway.
"But your presumption was, oh, a driver wants to go somewhere else. So hopefully that's not the case. But I have seen it where a driver actually signed with another team incorrectly, so had to drive for the team that he initially signed with. And it was absolutely no issue. Jenson at the time did a stellar job at BAR, and never ended up at Williams."
However, Szafnauer's comments about Button and Williams came before Piastri's declaration via social media that he will not be driving for Alpine in 2023.
Currently, the French team is standing its ground, a spokesperson telling The Race: "We believe we are legally correct in our statement, but don’t have anything further to say."
If the various parties cannot resolve the matter between themselves, the next step would be the Contract Recognition Board which was last used in the Button tug-of-war.
In the meantime, Williams added to the fun this morning when it revealed that it would be making an announcement at 15:00 BST.
If nothing else, Zak Brown was trending on Twitter last night, and none of it was positive.