Oscar Piastri was billed as the future star of Alpine having won the 2020 Formula 3 and 2021 Formula 2 championships. But too much limbo in securing his future led to the Australian defecting to main rivals McLaren, leaving Alpine without a star driver or future prospect. Now Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi has suggested that the teams young driver programme could be scrapped, questioning whether the investment is worth doing through their own young driver programmes. Speaking to The Race , Rossi said: “This is not good for the sport. Beyond our little scratch here at Alpine, I think the sport itself gets scratched a bit. "The problem it creates is that it makes the market too fluid a place. That endangers the stakeholders that invest into it."
Alpine boss torn on future of driver development programme
Rossi added: “If you decide that you’re going to save money every year, by not investing in drivers, and then you just poach them with that money you saved, it’s a different proposition. “I’m not sure therefore I want to continue training those drivers, or I’m gonna have to lock them in with a contract that might not be appealing to them." With talents including this years Formula 3 champion Victor Martins and Formula 2 runner up Jack Doohan, Rossi indicates that their existing agreements will be fulfilled. But the question of whether they continue to take on new drivers is still up in the air. He explains: “Now, we’re really wondering whether or not [to continue] beyond the current batch of drivers that we have and with whom we’re going to honour until the end our obligations as we have multi-year plans with them. "It is also part of our history. Do we really want to change that? And what signal are we sending? Moreover, it also touches on certain values that we stand for as a team. "We believe in attracting young talents who share those same values, which makes them a good fit for our team at the peak of their abilities.”
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