Gasly and Piastri to drive for new F1 teams in Abu Dhabi test

Sam Hall
Saturday 12 November 2022 15:49 - Updated: 15:49

Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri are to drive for their new F1 teams in the forthcoming Abu Dhabi test after deals were finalised.

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has confirmed an agreement has been reached with Alpine that allows Piastri to take part in the post-season test at Yas Marina.

Alpine has also come to an arrangement with AlphaTauri that sees Gasly, who replaces Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso after Piastri controversially spurned the opportunity to take up the seat vacated by the Spaniard, make his debut with the French team.

"I can confirm that in the end, we reached a settlement agreement with all parties involved which enabled us to put Oscar in an old car last week in Paul Ricard and do a private test," said Seidl.

"It will enable us to then officially start working with Oscar on Monday after the last race in Abu Dhabi, to put him in the current car at the young driver test in Abu Dhabi, which is something we are very much looking forward to.

"Running an old car alone on a track, there is not too much to read into it. In the end, it was a good start from Oscar with us."

Asked as to the benefits of the test outing, Seidl added: "Kilometres nowadays in Formula 1 cars for race drivers are quite limited with the regulations that are in place, especially when it comes to running the current car.

"Therefore, it is obviously a very important test for us to get an initial read from Oscar on our car and give him an initial feeling, which is simply a starting point of making sure we get him ready for Bahrain next year."

Alpine confirm Gasly capture

Despite the animosity regarding Piastri's defection, Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer felt it was time to end the saga.

"The season is nearly at the end and it was time to come to an agreement and we did," said Szafnauer.

"We're happy that Oscar can start his McLaren career after the last race in Abu Dhabi and do the test."

In the wake of Piastri's decision to join McLaren, Alpine turned to Gasly to form an all-French line-up at the team for next season with Esteban Ocon.

Like Seidl, Szafnauer is also delighted Gasly will get his first taste of the A522.

"We will be putting Pierre in the car in Abu Dhabi, and we will get working on our driver pairing, on our driver line-up," added Szafnauer.

"We will get his feedback and initial thoughts on our car this year and start to understand the things he likes and dislikes and hopefully be able to make some changes on next year's car with Pierre's input in mind."