Oscar Piastri has admitted that he no longer contemplates how his Formula 1 career would have progressed had he remained at Alpine and not signed with McLaren.
Piastri enters the remaining 12 races in 2025 in pole position to seize a maiden F1 title as he boasts a slender eight-point lead over McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
However, Piastri, now a seven-time Grand Prix winner, would not have been in such a privileged position had he debuted in the series with Alpine back in 2023 instead.
Having lost Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin, Alpine later announced in August 2022 that reserve driver Piastri was to succeed the Spaniard to partner Esteban Ocon.
Piastri soon took to social media to contend that he would not be racing with Alpine, though, as it then materialised that he had negotiated a deal to head to McLaren.
The Enstone-based squad proceeded to take legal action, though the Contract Recognition Board (CRB) ruled that McLaren’s agreement with the Australian was valid.
But while Alpine lies plumb last in the Constructors’ Championship – 441 points behind McLaren – Piastri denied that he ever dwells on how things might have evolved.
“I mean, it’s obviously a long time ago now. But no, I’ve not really thought about it much recently,” Piastri told media including Motorsport Week.
“When I joined Formula 1 there was kind of the comparisons and the directions that each team has taken, but now I honestly haven’t thought about it for over 12 months, probably.”
Piastri explains Alpine radio comment
Piastri indicated that there is no love lost between him and Alpine when he voiced on team radio in Austria that his ex-side “still manage to find a way to f*** me over”.
Alpine twice thwarted Piastri’s bid to beat Norris at the Red Bull Ring, with Pierre Gasly’s spin ensuring that the McLaren driver was unable to complete his last Q3 lap.
Having started third, Piastri was catching his team-mate in the closing stages when an oblivious Franco Colapinto pushed him onto the grass as he was being lapped.
“I think the comments on the radio, it was just the coincidence that the qualifying [incident] was obviously an Alpine and then I kind of got impeded by both in the race to an extent. So it was more just a coincidence,” he clarified.
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