We all were hoping for it and it most certainly delivered! F1 Silly Season has officially started and it is already carnage, leading to much confusion from the fans. Let this article take you through the 2022 Silly Season.
Drivers Involved in this Saga
Daniel Ricciardo: underperformed the McLaren, but certainly a good driver in a car that suits him.
Fernando Alonso: driving for Alpine, but due to his age Alpine don't want to give him a multi-year deal.
Oscar Piastri: incredibly promising rookie that won F3 and F2 in a row in his rookie year.
Colton Herta: promising young driver in IndyCar, but doesn't have enough points to compete in F1 due to outdated super licence scoring system.
Pierre Gasly: solid driver that is locked in for 2023 in that dog of an AlphaTauri.
Mick Schumacher: started off weakly but has improved dramatically within the season, but finds new cars challenging to adapt to.
So it all started on the 1st of August when Alonso announced he would be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin in 2023 to replace Sebastian Vettel, who was we all know is sadly retiring. His reasoning included Alpine refusing him a multi year contract. His move to Aston Martin granted him that multi year deal that he seeked, even if it meant he was driving round at the back of the grid, from what we can see from 2021-'22.
The next day, 2nd of August, Alpine put out a social media announcement that Oscar Piastri would be driving for them next year as Alonso's replacement. This move was expected, due to Oscar being in their academy. However the same day, Oscar put out on social media that he would not be driving for Alpine for 2023, and that he had not signed for them. This shocked the entire F1 Community, with rising confusion to where Oscar would go.
A couple of weeks later, 24th of August, Daniel Ricciardo announced there was mutual agreement that he would cut short his contract for 2023 and would be leaving at the end of this season. This also surprised the fans, since earlier in July he had cemented his allegiance to McLaren on social media. The favourite to join the British team was now Piastri, but nothing had been confirmed and Alpine F1, led by Otmar Szafnauer, were still convinced they had some agreement to Piastri driving for them.
This now meant Alpine had an empty seat against teammate Esteban Ocon. To begin with, Danny Ric, Pierre Gasly and Mick Schumacher were in contention for the seat, but Gasly is reported to be the most likely option. However this creates another problem since Gasly is contracted to AlphaTauri for 2023. Red Bull/AlphaTauri said they would let go of Pierre if they could get Colton Herta in that AlphaTauri seat, however this raised another problem since although Herta is a promising young driver in IndyCar, he didn't have enough super licence points to race full time. Red Bull have taken this to the FIA for appeal as an exception for him to race, which we are still waiting for the outcome of.
Hopefully this makes you understand Silly Season more - it certainly is confusing!
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