Then Formula One 2022 silly season is far from over despite Alonso moving to Aston Martin and McLaren stealing Alpine’s prized academy driver. Having bungled the Alonso/Piastri matter losing two drivers in two days, Alpine now holds the keys to who drives where in 2023.
Daniel Ricciardo has been paid out of his $12m final year’s contract and would probably race for free for Alpine. However, the Alpine team appear to be unable to forgive the Aussie driver for the manner in which he left them two years ago and are pursuing Red Bull driver Pierre Gasley.
Red Bull will expect compensation from Alpine but it is clear they will not try particularly hard to keep their Alfa Tauri driver. Gasley was promoted to the big boys team in 2019 but dropped back into the sister team after 12 rounds.
If Gasley was ever to be given the chance to race for the senior Red bull team it would surely have happened in 2021 following Alex Albon’s who was Verstappen’s team mate released from the team. Yet Sergio Perez was recruited on a year by year contract which was converted to a multi year deal before Monaco this season.
TJ13 reported last week that the FIA were considering the application for an F1 super license from a current IndyCar driver.
TJ13 article: American now firmly in the mix for f1 drive in 2023
When asked about Pierre Gasley’s future following the race in Zandvoort, team boss Christian Horner replied, “He’s a Red Bull Racing driver on loan to Alpha Tauri and there’s a lot of moving plates at the moment.”
“We’ll see how it pans out.”
Horner was asked whether they would only release Gasley if they could get Colton Herta’s F1 super license application approved the the FIA.
Horner replied, “That’s a key element. You’re not going to release Pierre unless you’ve got someone exciting to put in that car.”
In apparent confirmation of this today F1 reporter Chris Medland revealed on twitter:
Helmut Marko just told me an agreement has already been reached with all parties for Colton Herta to join IF he is granted a Super Licence by the FIA, and he expects a decision by Monza #F1
— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) September 4, 2022
There has been a drive from Formula One’s CEO Stefano Dominicali for an American driver to be recruited to the sport. Formula One has taken off in the USA and the addition of the Vegas GP in 2023 will see 5 races in North America.
Rumours abound that Dietrich Mateschitz being unwell abound and as Ted Kravitz confirmed yesterday he was not even present at the circuit he owns for the Austrian GP this year.
One result maybe he sells off Alpha Tauri to the eager Andretti Motorsports Global outfit who are keen to join F1 but have the door firmly closed at present to do so as an 11th team on the grid. Herta drives for Andretti in IndyCar and is the perfect kind of driver Helmut Marko would love to recruit.
Herta has tremendous speed but like the young Verstappen is highly erratic and as such is a perfect fit for Helmut Marko who recruits the young drivers for Red Bull Racing. Marko believes you can make a quick driver consistent more easily than a consistent driver quick.
Colton finished 3rd in the Indy drivers’ title race in just his second full season and now has 7 Indy wins in four years together with two podiums for finishing P2.
Hamilton rift with Wolff exposed
Red Bull are pressing the FIA to grant Colton Herta an F1 super license because under the current rules he does not qualify.
As TJ13 commentator Jere Jurala explains well, the problem is as follows:
“An exemption [to the FIA’s requirements] requires a force majeure outside a given driver’s control that has prevented that driver from reaching the standard minimum requirement of 40 SL pts & no force majeure situation (or nothing in the recent past) has affected Herta’s chances
“Short answer, no force majeure, no exemption.
“The alternative COVID-related 30-minimum has become more or less non-existent/irrelevant over time since COVID truly affected racing programs only in 2020 & Vips is the only driver who suffered at the time.
“For Herta, the only factor that can count as a force majeure case to any extent is his 2018 IndyLights campaign, as he didn’t get any SL pts from finishing 2nd for insufficient competitor amount that, of course, was something out of his control.
“I’m unsure if FIA would grant the pts he deserved from that campaign four years belatedly anymore & if they did, they should do the same for the other affected drivers, including Pato [Oward], for fairness’ sake.
“Getting SL pts from the 2018 IndyLights campaign belatedly is literally the only way for Herta to reach eligibility in time for the next season-opener, nothing else.”
I’m surprised you chose to quote me on this matter, but thank you anyway.
What I heard, though, is that they’d try & get him to reach the remaining SL pts via FP1 running, although only Monza, COTA, AHR, & YMC FP1s are suitable for taking away track time from regular drivers, so he’d only get four (one per FP1) from these.
Therefore, something else would also be necessary so that he’d reach eligibility in time for the next season-opener.
Why do they want Herta? He is not that good and tears up too much equipment. There are about 10 drivers in Indycar that I would take before Herta. But it is with Alpha Tauri. He will finish in about the same position he does in Indycar. Midfield….The reason he doesn’t have a Super license is because he is not good enough to have one. What a joke!
The FIA Super Licence points structure is a farce. IndyCar drivers should earn at least the same as those in F2, if not more. But the system is built to favor the FIA ladder system snd gives weak points to series in other parts of the world. Herta would have more than enough points with a fair structure.
The issue here is the fact that a relatively midfield IC driver is benefitting from a major F1 team giving serious political pressure to change the system, over the preference of already qualified (or soon to be) SL holders in F2
Ánd… fia is more than willing to cooperate (although they deny publicly) because… American driver = Good for business 😇.
Fia’s reluctance is only for the public and keeping up appearances.
I completely agree. IndyCar in my opinion is superior to F2 and should be accepted as so. I suspect with the new commercial rights owners influence from Dominicali who is respected by Ben Sulayem there will be changes very soon.
And Herta will by hook or by crook get his license – probably by Monza