Ex-F1 driver Paul di Resta says Oscar Piastri's forceful dismissal of Alpine's choice to promote him to a race seat with the team in F1 in 2023 is "very surprising" on the part of the young Australian driver.
Twenty-four hours after Aston Martin announced the hiring of Fernando Alonso from 2023, Alpine fired back on Tuesday with the identity of the Spaniard's replacement, namely Piastri.
But the announcement was void of any quotes from the 21-year-old, an observation that led many to believe that team and driver's contractual situation was perhaps not as cut and dried as Alpine was making it out to be.
But just hours after the Alpine release, Piastri posted a message on social media denying he had signed a contract with Alpine, but also saying that he would not be driving for the team next season.
The Aussie's message immediately lent credence to the rumor of a conditional agreement existing between himself and McLaren for 2023 and that had been making the rounds.
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Speaking to Sky Sports News, Di Resta admitted that he wasn't expecting Alonso's move to Aston Martin, but the Scot was downright stunned by Piastri's rebuttal.
"Fernando going to Aston, I hadn’t heard it anywhere, I don’t believe my colleagues had either and it also caught Otmar Szafnauer by surprise," di Resta said.
"That has led on to what has happened obviously with Piastri who has been an Alpine junior.
"They have been lobbying him, saying how good he is and where that seat is going to come up and even trying to place him within the Formula 1 paddock because he is an asset to them in the future.
"Now, that statement that he has put out, I find it very surprising that he is rejecting a team that is in the top four and a great upward trajectory, that you wouldn’t want to drive for them."
©Alpine
Di Resta assumes quite logically that Piastri's strong denial of his F1 drive with Alpine implies that a better deal – likely with McLaren – has been put together by the Aussie and his management team led by former Red Bull charger Mark Webber.
"That can only mean that he has got another seat secured somewhere else," reasoned the Sky F1 commentator.
"Where is he going to be driving? Is it McLaren? Is it Williams? Where does that leave Daniel Ricciardo? I am very unsure where that is going to happen.
"You have got this junior who is so highly rated on the back of what he has done in the junior categories and to sit him on the sidelines and now have him racing and invest all this testing in various different circuits.
"Putting him in a car was what Alpine had but obviously he feels he is going to be driving somewhere else."
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