Oscar Piastri has enjoyed success at McLaren after two years at the team, but it was very nearly not the case for the Australian after he was tangled in a contract dispute with Alpine. During the 2022 season, Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement from Formula 1 which allowed Fernando Alonso to announce a move to Aston Martin in the summer. When he did so, it kicked off a whirlwind of events whereby Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as their replacement having run him in F2 and put him on an extensive F1 test programme in the previous 12 months leading up to the announcement. Unbeknownst to th…
