Sebastian Vettel with other drivers ahead of the Emirates Formula One Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi last month. Photo / AP
One after another, drivers switched teams, were promoted and contracts dropped. And Sebastian Vettel retired.
When he announced, on July 28, his decision to retire at the end of the season, Sebastian Vettel could not have foreseen the domino effect that would follow.
Four days later, Aston Martin announced that Fernando Alonso would replace Vettel. What is known as “the silly season” — referring to all the talk that begins in late summer about where drivers will land for the next year — had started.
Vettel, a four-time champion, said his decision to retire had been “a difficult one to take,” which he “spent a lot of time thinking about.”
In contrast, Alonso, a two-time champion, needed little time to decide to leave Alpine to join Aston Martin.
“This team is clearly applying the energy and commitment to win and is therefore one of the most exciting in Formula One today,” he said.
Alpine immediately looked to promote its reserve driver, Oscar Piastri of Australia, announcing the move a day later. Oddly, there were no quotes from the driver in the news release about the decision. Two hours after the statement, Piastri, who in 2021 had signed an agreement to become a reserve driver for Alpine, said on Twitter that he would not be driving for the team in 2023.
Over time, it emerged that Piastri had signed a contract this year with McLaren to replace another Australian driver, Daniel Ricciardo.
McLaren announced in August that Ricciardo would leave the team at the end of the season, despite the fact that he had a year remaining on his contract. He has now returned to Red Bull, which he raced for from 2014 to 2018, as a reserve driver.
In September, the Contract Recognition Board, a body in F1 that rules on contractual disputes, decided in favour of McLaren for Piastri. The board said Alpine had no valid contract with Piastri.
Andreas Seidl, who was the McLaren team principal at the time (he is becoming CEO of the Sauber Group and will be replaced at McLaren by Andrea Stella, the team’s executive director of racing), said Alpine “never had a case.” Otmar Szafnauer, the Alpine team principal, said, “We performed on a contract we thought we had.” He said the team accepted the decision of the board.
Piastri said it was an emotional moment when he heard the decision after what was “a pretty stressful time with the CRB hearing.”
“To drive in F1 is something I’ve been working towards since I started racing way back when, 11 or 12 years ago now,” he said.
“So to finally know what my future holds and that it would be in F1, there was firstly relief and then a very, very happy moment.”
Piastri is considered a rising star after a stellar junior career in which he won the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019, the Formula Three championship the next year and the F2 title in 2021 before becoming the reserve driver for Alpine this year.
“Formula One is a big challenge,” Seidl said in an interview before his move to Sauber. “It’s another dimension compared to the junior categories, but at the same time, with everything he has shown, plus with his personality and character, he has everything in order to be successful in Formula One.
“And we are a team that can provide him with the right environment and with a clear understanding of how big this challenge is in order for him to get started in the right way.”
After Piastri’s move to McLaren, Alpine turned to Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri. Franz Tost, the team principal of AlphaTauri, said he would allow Gasly to leave if he could find another driver, which confirmed that Gasly’s contract would not be extended beyond 2023.
Tost wanted Colton Herta, but the driver from the United States needed the FIA Super License, the document issued by the sport’s governing body that allows drivers to compete in F1.
Despite Herta’s record in IndyCar, including seven wins, he was short of the required 40 points to acquire the license. The FIA decided there would be no special dispensation for him.
AlphaTauri then turned to Nyck de Vries, the 2019 F2 champion and winner of the 2020-21 Formula E title.
De Vries, who was a reserve driver for Mercedes in 2021 and 2022, drove in the first practice sessions in 2022 with the team, as well as for Williams and Aston Martin.
At the final practice session of the Italian Grand Prix, it was announced that Alex Albon of Williams had appendicitis. De Vries stepped in, and after qualifying 13th, scored points on his debut for finishing ninth.
In October, Alpine confirmed it had signed Gasly, while AlphaTauri announced it had recruited de Vries.
The move called into question how Gasly and his teammate Esteban Ocon would get along. Both drivers are from France and were involved in numerous clashes when they were competing in karting.
Szafnauer said “an informed decision” was made after “talking to the entire team,” including Ocon.
“It’s a team sport, and we have to be able to work together and optimise,” Szafnauer said. “Esteban was very supportive, Pierre as well. They’re professionals. They have no issue working together, and hopefully, the friendship will rekindle.”
Gasly said he would have remained with his former team, AlphaTauri, if Alonso had not left Alpine.
“The whole picture completely changed from the moment Fernando left, and then that triggered the whole chaos that followed after that, but in the end, positive chaos for me because it has brought an amazing opportunity,” Gasly said in an interview.
“It’s no secret to anyone that our relationship has had ups and downs over the years,” he said about Ocon. “He is the guy I have known the longest in the paddock, since I was 6 years old. Now we are 26.
“The kids we were at the time, compared to the young men we are now of 26, with full control of our lives, different responsibilities, we have changed a lot, and since we’ve arrived in F1, we’ve definitely cleared some dust.”
It was no surprise when, in September, Williams confirmed that Nicholas Latifi was leaving after three seasons with the team. He had scored only nine points in 61 Grands Prix.
“I do understand the decision,” Latifi said. “At the end of the day, it’s a results-based industry, performance-based industry, and this year it didn’t work out for many different reasons.”
Williams then announced it would promote Logan Sargeant, a member of its driver academy, to fill the vacancy, pending his obtaining a Super License.
The team had to wait until the final day of the F1 season Nov. 20 to confirm the move after Sargeant, of the United States, finished fifth in the last F2 race of the year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to cross the 40-point threshold. He said “it was a dream come true” to compete in F1 with Williams.
In November, Haas announced it would not renew the contract of Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time champion Michael.
He was replaced by Nico Hülkenberg, who had previously made 181 Grand Prix starts with Williams, Force India, Sauber and Renault.
Hülkenberg, who had been a reserve driver for Aston Martin, said he still had “the hunger to race, the fire to be in Formula One.” He added, “It’s the pinnacle of motor sport, a pretty cool environment, what I love doing and probably what I’m best at.”
An arrangement among the teams allowed all the drivers to drive with their new teams on a test day after the final race in Abu Dhabi. Ordinarily, drivers do not start work until the new year.
All were happy, including Alonso. “I’m much more optimistic now,” he said.
“When I signed for Aston Martin, I was 90% happy; when they started improving and they finished the season on a high, I was 100 per cent; now I’m 100-plus.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Ian Parkes
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