F1 2022 Discussion Thread

[GrandSlamFinale]

After many weeks and months of waiting, we finally have an F1 discussion thread on MN!

Anyone who wants to join is welcome - regardless of how long you've been watching the sport or who you support. My only request is that we keep it respectful even when criticising our favourite driver's rivals.

We're in Barcelona this weekend for round 6 of what has been a thriller of a championship so far. I'm really excited to see how the race unfolds today, if overtaking will prove as difficult as it historically has here, if the Mercs have done a step forward in race pace, how RB and Ferrari will play around with strategy and tyres.

I really hope it’s Oscar who gets the Alpine seat now. Daniel keeps saying he’s committed to McLaren until 2023 but I wonder if they’re also looking at alternatives?

Got to agree, Daniel might be committed to mclaren, but are they committed to him?

I'd love for Piastri to get a drive next year. Makes the most sense for Alpine, given he's done work with them before.

Did anyone see the tweet about 30 mins ago saying he announced retirement at end of 2022?
I got breaking news and checked the name of the page carefully in case it was a joke and it was the official f1 page.
Its now deleted I think???

Daniel Riccardo moving toAlpine!

That is not official information. Which F1 source did you read that on?

Highly unlikely. I honestly don't see it. When I've googled it, it's not official sources. I think it's more likely to see him retire at the end of this season.

Unless it comes from the official channels, don't believe everything you read on the internet.

However..... big news! I've just signed to replace Max Verstappen.....

Oscar Piastri to Alpine confirmed.

Brilliant!!

Amazing! So happy for him.

Anyone else think they could’ve spread out the press releases, because it’s the 2nd of August and we already have most of the info that usually keeps me going during the summer break 😂

Right, so Oscar Piastri has just put up a statement saying that he hasn't actually signed anything with Alpine.

Twitter link

There has been some noise about him and his manager Mark Webber having a deal with Mclaren but nobody really understood how that would work. He now says he won't drive for Alpine in 2023 so I'm guessing it might be Mclaren after all? He's their test driver this year.

Other empty seats are at Haas, Williams (x2) and Alpha Tauri. Silly season is in full swing this year!

Argh so maybe he will go to mclaren and Danny ricc will go to alpine?! 🤔

What a shambles though

Oh my, it really is silly season! Someone at Alpine really jumped the gun with the Piastri announcement.

Probably hoping a bit of pressure would make him sign the deal. Clearly backfired

Ferrari must be putting out these press releases.

Haha!!! I like this theory!

This is exactly what I told my brother earlier! You wouldn’t expect these games from a half-decent team.

Embarrassing for Alpine, does make you wonder if Piastri has already got a contract elsewhere that isn't public yet.

Isn't he locked in with mclaren until the end of 2023? I wonder if Danny Ricc will now go to alpine as a PP saw earlier 🤷🏻‍♀️ it's all a shambles now though!

Contracts have buy out clauses and Daniel isn’t really performing… I too think Alpine panicked and thought they could just get that first announcement out and put some pressure on Oscar.

I honestly think Daniel will retire. He's lost his confidence and it's sad to see as he's defo one of my faves.

But I find it odd that F1 and Alpine Instagram pages still have the announcements up! You'd think they would address the cock up.

Another update

Multi year contract, really happy for him.

I wonder who Williams will put in the second seat… Rumours are Latifi is out.

Really loved his update! 😂