“That’s just the way the cookie crumbles” – Oscar Piastri is an Alpine Academy driver but is finding it hard to break in a team of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
F2 championship leader Oscar Piastri is in the form of his life. He won the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019 and then the Formula 3 title the following season.
Despite being in line to win three back-to-back championships, he has not been in contention for an F1 seat in 2022. Almost all the seats are filled, with the possible departure of Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo opening the door for another Alpine Academy driver instead, Guanyu Zhou.
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Piastri is evident surprised and disappointed, and rightly so, given there are drivers like Nikita Mazepin and Alex Albon who ply their trade in F1 mostly based on commercial power.
“I think I’ve done a good job of putting myself in a pretty prime position for an F1 seat. I’ve won two championships in a row and leading a third. We’re still only halfway through this F2 year so a lot can still change.
“But all the moves in F1 are happening now or have already happened. So it’s a bit disappointing the way it’s kind of played out because I really don’t know what more I could have done.
“It’s been a pretty tough few weeks watching everything unfold and not really being involved at all given the position I’m in. But that’s just the way the cookie crumbles.
“I think it probably is just a case of bad timing. But I still want to try and win this championship, obviously.
“I’ve had a few suggestions of purposely not winning it to do another year but that’s just silly, I want to win the championship. And I think if I do win the championship I’d be pretty annoyed if something at some point in the future didn’t arise from that.”
