The 2025 silly season has been one of the most chaotic in recent F1 history. It has already confirmed three rookies for next season with two seats vacant. However, none of the signings have made an entry into the sport as controversial as Oscar Piastri. The Australian ruled the headlines as major drama ensued after a premature Alpine announcement which he had to debunk via Twitter (now X) and he takes pride in it.
In a feature video with Cosmopolitan UK on YouTube, he was asked his thoughts on the chaos of the current silly season. This is when Piastri said, “I mean, it’s nice to be watching silly season unfold instead of being part of it, that’s for sure. I don’t know if anyone will ever outdo my entrance into Formula 1. I hope for their sake they don’t.”
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.
— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) August 2, 2022
He highlighted the big-name moves all across the grid this year — Lewis Hamilton’s start of the season Ferrari announcement replacing Carlos Sainz, who only recently confirmed his Williams move. There was also the prolonged confusion at Mercedes and then their announcement of the Italian prodigy, Kimi Antonelli.
The aforementioned moves made the headlines and created a lot of noise. However, none came close to a rookie snubbing an F1 team for another on a social media platform.
It was a tricky situation for Alpine when Fernando Alonso decided to leave the team for a surprise move to Aston Martin. It was during the summer break of the 2022 season and the French outfit just posted that they will promote Piastri to the race seat for the next season.
However, the 2021 F2 champion had run out of patience even before then, by sitting on the sidelines without an F1 seat. Thus, he had started behind-the-scenes talks with McLaren and they assured him of a full-time seat on a multi-year deal.
So, it all turned ugly after Piastri openly refused Alpine’s promotion. McLaren and Alpine had a legal battle with the Woking outfit coming out on top as they had a valid F1 driver contract with Piastri.
