McLaren has 'variety of options' outside of Piastri

McLaren racing boss Zak Brown has suggested that the papaya squad hasn't put all its eggs in one basket by signing up Oscar Piastri for 2023.

Piastri's contract with McLaren is being disputed by his current employer Alpine, which has supported the young Aussie's motorsport career since 2020.

To untangle the legal wranglings between team and driver and clarify Piastri's future, one way or the other, the FIA's Contract Recognition Board held a meeting on Monday, the outcome of which should be known this week.

But if the CRB's decision proves negative for McLaren, Brown insists his team has "a variety of options" to fall back on.

"We have multiple plans," Brown told SpeedCity Broadcasting.

"There is a CRB meeting which has been reported on – I think we’ll be better placed to comment on it post the meeting.

"We’ve got a variety of options and of course that’s clearly one of them [PIastri] or we wouldn’t be in that meeting. Let’s just see how it plays out and then we will go from there."

• Read also: Ricciardo to weigh his F1 options for 2023 after Monza

McLaren has signed up IndyCar chargers Colton Herta and Pato O'Ward to F1 test programmes with the Woking-based outfit, while reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou has also joined the team's rostrum of drivers, although the Spaniard's contract status is also being disputed by his current outfit Chip Ganassi Racing.

Brown joked that he even tried to sign himself up to McLaren's extensive F1 driver base.

"I tried to put myself in the seat but Andreas shot that down, so that’s the only driver that we’ve ruled out so far!" said the American.

"We have our testing program, Colton Herta did an excellent job, Pato was in the car at the end of last year, he did an excellent job.

"Off course, we’ve got our situation with Alex going on in the States, we’ll see how that plays out but we certainly intend to put him in our Formula 1 car, so all those drivers have won a lot of races in a very competitive championship.

"I hold IndyCar at the very highest level of motorsport, so I think we’ve got a handful of different options and we’ll just take one day at a time."

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