GIOVINAZZI FIGHTS TO KEEP ALFA SEAT
While Valtteri Bottas will move from Mercedes to become Alfa Romeo team leader next year, the identity of the driver in the second seat had yet to be announced as this issue of GP Racing closed for press. While Alpine junior Guanyu Zhou was believed to be the likeliest candidate for that position, GP Racing understands that this is by no means a done deal. Formula 2 frontrunner Oscar Piastri, who had all but given up on finding an F1 seat for 2022, may yet find himself in the Alfa drive – or the incumbent Antonio Giovinazzi may cling on for another season.
Alfa Romeo is no longer contractually committed to having a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Giovinazzi has been sporadically quick during his three seasons in F1, but seldom convincingly outperformed the fading Kimi Räikkönen. He also has a habit of making small but costly mistakes, such as when he shunted out of eighth place in the closing laps of the 2019 Belgian GP. But his qualifying performances have markedly improved recently, and he reached Q3 at Zandvoort and Monza.
Twenty-two-year-old Zhou is on Alpine’s junior driver programme but no vacancies exist at that team, since Esteban Ocon is on a long-term contract and Fernando Alonso recently agreed a one-year extension which takes the double world champion to the end of 2022. Zhou has shown well in F2 this season and has a portfolio of sponsors eager to be on board with the first Chinese driver to race in Formula 1.
However, GP Racing understands the key stumbling block is that Zhou and his backers want a three-year contract. This is incompatible with team principal Frédéric Vasseur’s desire to promote Théo Pourchaire, who is part of the junior driver scheme operated by Sauber, which runs its F1 team under the Alfa Romeo banner. The 18-year-old Frenchman won the ADAC Formula 4 series in 2019 and was second in the curtailed FIA F3 championship last year. Vasseur has said 2022 would be too early for Pourchaire to make his F1 debut. But if Zhou has a three-year contract there would be no seat for Pourchaire to fill come 2023, unless Bottas were to be evicted in his favour. This is highly unlikely.
With the two sides seemingly at loggerheads, Piastri has once again entered the equation. Like Zhou, he is on Alpine’s junior books. Although he told GP Racing’s sister site Motorsport.com at the end of September that he was “not very confident” of securing the second Alfa seat, and that he was likely to spend 2022 on the sidelines – potentially as Alpine’s reserve driver – Piastri could easily slot in if Zhou and his backers deem a one-year contract unacceptable.
Currently, Vasseur holds all the cards. Piastri is leading Zhou in the F2 standings by 178 points to 142 and there will be no more races until the Saudi Arabia/abu Dhabi doubleheader in late-november/early-december. Thus plenty of time for interested parties to sharpen their contractual pencils. No wonder Vasseur describes his situation as a “luxury problem”.