Oscar Piastri drove a McLaren at Le Castellet last week – according to the French edition of Auto Hebdo, the Australian drove last year’s MCL35M car on Wednesday and Thursday as part of private testing.
Officially, Piastri will not become Lando Norris’ new partner until next year, but he has already started to master the technique developed by the team from Woking. On Wednesday he drove a shortened 3.6 kilometer version of the track and on Thursday he had to work on the ring configuration on which the French Grand Prix was held and the rain did not prevent this.
Significantly, McLaren has not officially reported these tests, although when last year’s car was driven by either Alex Palou or Pato O’Ward, some information did emerge.
Does this mean Oscar is already free from obligations to Alpine? It is worth recalling that the transition from Piastri to McLaren was accompanied by a rather scandalous situation, which was only resolved after the intervention of the FIA contract recognition council. While he remains officially reserve driver for the Renault works team, there have been behind-the-scenes talks that last year’s Formula 2 champion would have the opportunity to work with McLaren early on.
According to Auto Hedbo, Piastri was already wearing a McLaren jumpsuit at Le Castelle, which, however, had no sponsor logos. Apparently some arrangements have been made between the teams, but Alpine has not yet responded to the publication’s request to comment on the situation.
Source: F1 News
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