On track to win the Formula 2 Championship, Piastri is 40 points ahead of 2022 Alfa Romeo F1 driver Guanyu Zhou after securing a remarkable fourth straight pole position of the year in Jeddah on Friday.
With Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso tied for next year and Alpine doesn’t have a junior team on the grid to place its young drivers, Piastri will be forced to spend a year on the sidelines as reserve and test driver for the French team .
Ocon is tied to Alpine until 2024, while Budkowski confirmed that Alonso’s future will depend on the team’s competitiveness and whether the two-time champion is motivated to keep going.
“If the car is fast and Fernando is happy we will have some kind of discussion,” he said.
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“If not, we will have a different type of discussion. But we certainly have a great talent with Oscar in the starting blocks and if there is no free space at Alpine, we will surely find a solution for him to drive a Formula 1 car and stay in the Alpine family. “
Starting next year, the teams have to complete at least two training sessions with a young driver during the season so that Piastri can convince on a race weekend.
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Budkowski revealed that Piastri’s role as a reserve driver will include significant test kilometers and intensive preparation for the year 2023, even if this is not up to Alpine itself.
“Oscar’s announcement, if you want him to be our reserve driver, is not just an announcement in itself, but a ton of other things if you want,” he explained.
“Oscar will be very involved in the simulator and he’s already doing some of it, but not as much as we’d like, because obviously he’s driving in Formula 2 and he has yet to win this championship this year, but he’ll go.” To do a lot of development work, a lot of simulator work, to spend time in the factory, very close to the engineers, he’ll also do a lot of train travel.
“Well, he’ll be competing in Abu Dhabi for the post-season test this year. The regulations stipulate that it should be used in two free practice sessions next year. We’ll be running a bespoke testing program for it in Formula 1 cars to make sure it really boots up properly. We will develop Oscar a lot and not only take him to the races as our third driver. “
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