Another round of stuff from Peter Windsor (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVOy7lr2D-E )...
He suggests a lot of interesting stuff, pardon if I get any of it wrong.
He states the only obligation Alpine had to Piastri for 2023 was to either put him in the Alpine seat or financially support his seat at another team i.e. Williams. He doesn't explain how it is that Piastri could just walk away from his contract for 2023 given that Alpine is meeting its obligations.
He states that if Alonso had made his move to Aston Martin known earlier, the Alpine seat would have been open for Piastri, he would have taken it, and none of this would have happened.
Instead the plan being discussed was Piastri to Williams, and at some point McLaren came into the picture, and given the McLaren vs Williams choice, Piastri went for the McLaren seat.
Windsor didn't call Piastri disloyal, but he certainly implied it. He spoke a lot to how much Alpine had invested in him over the years, which is several million dollars, with Alpine now getting no further benefit from that investment.
He didn't say Piastri was making a mistake, but did say that Williams had good people and could improve rapidly, and suggested Alpine and McLaren are pretty similar.
The impression I got was Windsor was being fed info from Alpine insiders and he was spinning the story in their favor.
StarAC17 wrote:If Otmar is willing to have him back I would go back to Alpine if I was Danny Ric, he had a good 2020 in that car with 2 podiums IIRC.
Had 2020 been a normal year I don't think he signs with McLaren for 2021, he signed the deal before the season even started and had no idea that the car would be in contention to lead the midfield.
Windsor laughed at the idea of Alpine taking him back.
He suggested Williams would go with Logan Sargent and Alex Albon, and thought Danny wouldn't go for Haas or any of the other back of the pack teams. Seems he feels it won't be easy for Danny to get a seat for next season.
StarAC17 wrote:Arguably the Alpine is a superior car to the McLaren this year. Lando just happens to be at the level of George Russell and Charles Leclerc and would probably be ahead of both if he was at Ferrari or Mercedes.
So many interesting story lines for next year. If Piastri does well in the McLaren, then Danny Ric will be blamed for being an old dog that couldn't learn a new trick. If Piastri does poorly and Danny Ric goes elsewhere and does well, then McLaren will be blamed for making a car that only Lando can drive and for rushing Piastri along in a car that only someone like Lando can drive.
Someone I respect has a line that says "It's easier to learn than to un-learn and re-learn". In other words, it is harder for old dogs to learn new tricks because they probably have to un-learn some aspects of the old tricks to be able to take in new tricks. My inclination is to feel that Piastri will just cope with the car at McLaren better because he probably can adapt to it better than Danny Ric did. Time will tell.