Piastri explains viral Alpine radio message from F1 Austrian GP

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has explained his radio message at the close of last week’s Austrian Grand Prix, when he said “Alpine still managed to find a way to f*** me over all these years later,” that was quickly picked up by the media.

Piastri’s message made reference to his time at the team back in 2022 when, after Fernando Alonso announced he would be leaving the team for Aston Martin, Alpine confidently confirmed that their reserve driver, Piastri, would be taking the Spaniard’s place. 

This led to one of the most memorable tweets of the championship’s history as the Australian shot down the post from Alpine.

“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year,” he wrote. “This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”

Discussing his radio message from last week and whether he thinks about how his career would have been different if he’d chosen to drive for the French team, Piastri said the thought didn’t cross his mind. 

“It was just a coincidence that qualifying was obviously an Alpine [spinning] and then I got impeded by both in the race to an extent, so it was more just a coincidence,” Piastri explained in today’s press conference. 

“But no, I’ve not really thought about it much recently.

“When I joined Formula 1, it 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.”

The Australian’s frustration during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend was clear. During the latter stages of the race he was pushed off the track by Franco Colapinto as the Argentine duelled Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. Two laps later, the McLaren driver was then impeded by Pierre Gasly.

Fortunately for Piastri, McLaren has seen a surge in performance since he joined, with the team now enjoying the lead of the constructors’ standings.

Leveraging this new-found pace, the driver sits at the top of the drivers’ standings with a 15-point lead over team-mate Lando Norris going into the weekend.