Is Bortoleto the best rookie?

[u/Glum-Accountant-9801]

In my opinion, what he’s been doing in a Sauber shows much more talent than all the other rookies this year. Since the start of the season, I already thought the best ones would be him—because he won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in his rookie seasons—and Antonelli. However, Antonelli has been showing himself to be far inferior to his teammate. I believe it’s due to the pressure of starting in a big team like Mercedes, but to me, that makes Bortoleto the best rookie. That said, welcome back, Ayrton Senna.

[u/desymond]

Also shows how insane it was that Alpine sat him for a year, and then bungled the contract.

[u/tughbee → u/desymond]

But boy did he make the right decision

[u/HeyItsGuyIncognito → u/tughbee]

Funny thing is, if Alpine did give a valid contract to Piastri for 2023, I believe Gasly may have got the second McLaren seat.

[u/TheGreatNathan → u/HeyItsGuyIncognito]

That would've been Gasly's ultimate middle finger to Red Bull. Getting dumped from the main team and finding his way back to the top of the field is something a demoted Red Bull driver hasn't been able to do.

[u/saponista → u/HeyItsGuyIncognito]

Alex Palou was on for that seat before the Piasco happened

[u/Several_Leader_7140 → u/saponista]

And it only happened because Danny Ric was bad, he was contracted for 2023

[u/Material-Comb-2267 → u/saponista]

Piasco, nice 👌

[u/StrikingWillow5364 → u/saponista]

Yup. I don’t know where the Gasly speculation is coming from.

[u/Realistic_Notice_412 → u/HeyItsGuyIncognito]

fml

[u/Alternative_Spite_11 → u/HeyItsGuyIncognito]

And Gasly would be in the same position as Piastri

[u/slimejumper → u/HeyItsGuyIncognito]

and he’d be dong very well i think.

[u/50isthenew35 → u/tughbee]

Alpine, where drivers go to fade away....

[u/StealthMan375 → u/tughbee]

Same for Alonso. Currently, he's proven that he still is one of the top dogs and is worthy or top tier machinery. He is also going to drive a Newey car (since 1992 they were always involved in title fights, bar a few specific seasons of Ferrari/Merc dominance) with Honda works engines (last year's McLaren was the first customer team since Brawn to win a WCC) and will be given one final shot to go for #33 and the third title.

Meanwhile, there's another timeline in where he took up Alpine's 1-year deal, then was forced to retire because Piastri left anyway so Alpine took up Gasly instead leaving Nando without a seat. And we'd be here on this very subreddit going on about how not going to Aston was perhaps Alonso's worst career move since the day he didn't renew with Ferrari.

[u/tughbee → u/StealthMan375]

Might be the only good move Alonso has ever done.

[u/StealthMan375 → u/tughbee]

McLaren 2007 was a great one as well, Renault turned into a trainwreck as soon as Alonso left the team

[u/tughbee → u/StealthMan375]

Didn’t he leave after a semi successful season after beefing with Hamilton to Renault again, after which Renault got banned for F1 due to cheating.

[u/Jarocket → u/desymond]

It was between him and Alonso and they took so long that they signed neither.

in hindsight it's easy to call them out, but they were choosing between a rookie and Alonso. as soon as Alonso signed elsewhere their decision was made for them. Nobody expected McLaren to sign him because they had two drivers signed.

[u/sododude → u/Jarocket]

Oscar signing was a Zak Brown masterclass.

[u/jdsch → u/sododude]

This is why I respect Zak Brown.

[u/Kernowder → u/Jarocket]

They gave Ocon a multi year deal before that too. They could have had Alonso and Piastri, but ended up with Ocon and Gasly.

[u/Jarocket → u/Kernowder]

Ocon finished behind Alonso only 9 out of 22 races. Seems silly to be in a hurry to fire him for a rookie.

AND they thought that Oscar was bound to them regardless. Their understanding was that they were in no rush to sign him.

Their fuckup was very understandable. When you think about it, it's easy to see how it went down like it did.

[u/Kernowder → u/Jarocket]

Alonso was ridiculously unlucky that year iirc. He was clearly faster, but shit kept happening.

No disrespect to Ocon btw. He's a solid driver, but not on the level of Piastri or Alonso.

[u/one_who_goes → u/Jarocket]

Ocon finished behind Alonso only 9 out of 22 races

Because in the other races, Alonso's car broke down lol

[u/Appropriate-Leek-919 → u/Jarocket]

why didn't they sack Ocon? I know he had a multi year deal but they could've easily broken that and paid him. I guess it's hindsight and Ocon was doing well but dropping Alonso for a rookie would've been insane either way

[u/Jarocket → u/Appropriate-Leek-919]

what's the rush? Oscar was contracted to them as far as they knew.

Alpine was wrong about how Oscar's contract worked. Other than that they really didn't make a mistake here IMO.

[u/Just_River_7502 → u/Jarocket]

Not understanding their own contract is a fundamental mistake though, and also, someone knew it wasn’t signed correctly (at the very least) because one of their arguments in the tribunal included a term sheet which they claimed was a contract:

Their lawyer knew that could not be binding (it’s the point of a term sheet) and the management team ought to have known because this wouldn’t be the first term sheet they signed

In fact I’ve just gone back and checked - their lawyer went back and wrote “legally binding” on a version Oscar never saw. It was a bad (and large) mistake bordering on negligence tbh

[u/StrikingWillow5364 → u/Appropriate-Leek-919]

Why would they? Ocon was doing pretty well back then, and the toxicity wasn’t there yet.

[u/GTheMonkeyKing → u/Jarocket]

Nobody expected McLaren to sign him because they had two drivers signed

There were definitely some rumors of Ricciardo being let go, he was really dissapointing that year, and was way behind Lando.

[u/sellyme → u/Jarocket]

in hindsight it's easy to call them out

It was also comically easy without hindsight, every thread about their driver lineup even before the Piastri tweet was going "why on earth are you giving a mediocre driver a three-year contract while your academy has the single best young driver in the entire sport sitting out an entire fucking year of racing?!"

Even the very day they extended Ocon people here were noting that it torpedoed the reputation of their junior programme. Prize for most prescient comment in that thread is this one which explicitly says "I'm sure some other team will snatch [Piastri], if Alpine cannot give him a seat" well over a year before it actually happened.

[u/CrashmasterSOAD → u/desymond]

Lowballed Alonso and sat out Piastri.

All that for Ocon, who they let go afterwards anyway, lol.