‘Very talented’ Oscar Piastri will find F1 seat ‘pretty soon’

Alpine teammate Estban Ocon believes Piastri’s experience can make him ‘the best-prepared driver ever’

Oscar Piastri speaks at the launch of Alpine’s 2022 car (Reuters)

Esteban Ocon has tipped fellow Alpine teammate and highly rated prospect Oscar Piastri to soon find a Formula One seat.

The 21-year-old looks to be one of the brightest talents to soon enter the pinnacle of the sport having won the Formula Three and Formula Two World Championships in consecutive years.

Piastri joined the Renault Sport Academy, which was later rebranded to the Alpine Academy, in 2020 and is currently spending the 2022 season as a reserve driver for both Alpine and McLaren as he was unable to secure his own seat.

His Alpine teammate Ocon said: “Oscar is a great guy. I mean, he’s very involved in the team, he’s going to have a great testing programme.

“He’s going to be probably the best-prepared driver ever, with the test programme that he’s got at Alpine.

“I’m very sure he’s going to have a seat in Formula One shortly. I don’t know where in the paddock, but opportunity comes for the ones who deserve it.

“And Oscar is one of them. He’s won all the major titles and he’s very professional and dedicated. So yeah, I’m sure you will see him around pretty soon.”

Double F1 champion and current Alpine driver, Fernando Alonso also commended Piastri and hopes that the Australian will find a drive shortly.

“He’s a good guy, obviously very talented, won all the junior categories until now, which obviously shows that he has the talent,” said Alonso.

“[He’s] very professional and hardworking on the simulator and on the factory, in all our meetings. He’s still very young. Hopefully he finds a seat soon.”

PlanetF1 reported that Alpine may look to loan Piastri to another team in order to get him race experience.

“If it’s a solution that allows me to get him back at some point, I might think about it, I’m not opposed to the solution,” Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi said as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“You understand I want to develop Oscar, I don’t want to leave him sitting on the bench waiting forever.

“He needs to be ready when the day comes. And the day will come because he’s very talented, he’s very worthy of one of the top 20 seats here. And I do believe he has the potential of being a future World Champion, I’m persuaded of that. So he needs to be trained as much as he can in the meantime.

“[Looking at a loan has] always been a parameter for all of us.”