The Alpine Formula 1 team says it has made its reserve driver Oscar Piastri available to McLaren in case it needs a stand-in, amid uncertainty over Daniel Ricciardo’s status for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Ricciardo has missed the entirety of the second 2022 pre-season test in Bahrain due to an illness that was ultimately confirmed as COVID-19, leaving him to quarantine for the time being.
And while McLaren is confident of having Ricciardo available for next weekend’s season opener at the same track, it does have a range of fallback options in case someone needs to slot in alongside Lando Norris.
Speaking to media earlier on Saturday, McLaren F1 team boss Andreas Seidl referenced the fact McLaren had a deal with engine supplier Mercedes to share reserve drivers with its works team, meaning it should have access to its former F1 driver Stoffel Vandoorne and its former F1 junior Nyck de Vries.
Seidl said the team could also call upon ex-Force India F1 driver Paul di Resta, who it had as a fallback option last year.
However, Alpine has now announced that, “in the spirit of offering maximum racing opportunities to our stable of young talent”, McLaren can also use reigning Formula 2 champion Piastri as a replacement.
Piastri was angling to move up to F1 this year following a phenomenal rookie F2 season in 2021, but ultimately had to settle for a reserve role.
“It would be great if Oscar can get some races under his belt in Formula 1 and get that very valuable experience. [It’s] a gallant gesture with hopefully a team we’re going to be competing with,” said Alpine’s new team boss Otmar Szafnauer.
“We spoke to McLaren about Oscar being a reserve if they need him.
“He’s definitely our reserve first and foremost, so if there was a conflict we would definitely take him. But if Daniel can’t drive then we’ll offer him up.”
McLaren and Alpine have previous for this kind of deal, with the latter (then still competing as Renault) granting McLaren the potential use of its reserve Sergey Sirotkin in 2019 – though McLaren was a Renault engine customer at the time.
