Formula 1 News: Oscar Piastri joins McLaren as one of their reserve drivers. After a deal between Alpine and McLaren. McLaren can now get the services of Piastri as a stand-in for Daniel Ricciardo or Lando Norris.
It is believed that the deal between both teams was done after weeks of discussions. Resulting in Piastri being added to the pool of reserve drivers. Mclaren also has a deal with Mercedes where they can get the services of Stoffel Vandoorne or Nyck de Vries.
Similarly, they also have a deal with Paul Di Resta, a former driver for Force India. So that he can also act as a stand-in driver for them. According to Alpine, this agreement will provide more opportunities for racing to their young drivers.
As a result, they have agreed that if any of its drivers are unable to race, McLaren can use Oscar Piastri as a stand-in driver. The 2022 season is full of opportunity. Strengthening the backup team is just as vital as strengthening the starting lineup.
“In the spirit of offering maximum racing opportunities to our stable of young talent, we have agreed that McLaren may call upon BWT Alpine F1 Team Reserve Driver Oscar Piastri in the event one of their drivers is unable to race,” tweeted Alpine.
Oscar will remain fully contracted to Alpine, and we will retain first options on his services,” it added. The key reason is that Alpine’s motivation for this contract is to offer its young F1 champion, Oscar, the most potential exposure.
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Their experienced driver Daniel Ricciardo is currently suffering from Covid-19 due to which he also missed the pre-season testing in Bahrain as he was isolated, so having a number of stand-in drivers is a good thing for McLaren.
Although, it is expected that Ricciardo will be fit until next week and will be there at the season-opening at Bahrain Grand Prix which is next weekend. Piastri is also a reserve driver for Alpine’s drivers as the former Formula 2 champion did not get to be the main driver this year. He is currently a reserve for the team of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon at Alpine.
McLaren’s pre-season testing did not go as well as the team had hoped. That is why precautions are taken and drivers are reserved. They don’t want to take any chances, therefore they’ve reserved a number of young, skilled drivers. Daniel Ricciardo, their seasoned driver, is currently Covid-19 Positive. It’s always a good idea to have a backup.
According to Gary Anderson McLaren had a problem with brake cooling, which hindered any racing simulations and made tire evaluation impossible. The problem was deeper within the vehicle, and simply opening the cooling ducts was not enough to fix it.
Apart from that, the car appeared to be in excellent condition, with minimal rust. Pre-season testing at McLaren was a complete disaster.
