Less than four days after Sebastian Vettel announced his plan to retire from F1 at the end of the season, Aston Martin revealed it had signed two-time F1 world champion Alonso as his replacement on a multi-year deal from 2023.
It came as a shock to Alpine, who had expected to retain Alonso for next year, and blew the driver market wide open with repercussions for a number of other teams. Alpine now finds itself in a contract dispute with McLaren over Oscar Piastri, who it intends to field next year alongside Esteban Ocon.
