Piastri and the Incident with Alpine at the Austrian Grand Prix
Oscar Piastri starred in a curious moment during the Austrian Grand Prix, generating laughter and surprise on the team’s radio transmission. The McLaren driver was close to an unusual accident with his former team, Alpine. Piastri, in the search for the lead, tried to overtake traffic at turn 3, but Alpine’s Franco Colapinto didn’t see him coming and forced him to make an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision. The incident occurred while Piastri was chasing his teammate, Lando Norris, for the first position on lap 55.ESPN F1’s Instagram post shows the reaction of the fans and the driver’s response.“Alpine still manages to find a way to screw me… after all these years, eh?”
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After the incident, Piastri finished in second place, behind Norris, reducing his championship lead to 15 points. Piastri’s trajectory, from youth promise to title contender, has been unconventional. He joined the Renault, later Alpine, academy in January 2020. In July 2022, the team announced him as one of their Formula 1 drivers for the following season. Piastri, however, denied having signed a contract, which was confirmed by the FIA’s contract recognition board, and agreed to a contract with McLaren. Piastri cited a breakdown of trust with the team and stated that the way he was treated by Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer was “strange and annoying”. Regarding Sunday’s incident, Colapinto received a five-second penalty and one penalty point.“I just didn’t see it,” Colapinto said. “It was in my blind spot and I was focused on Tsunoda. I really wanted to pass”.
