Zhou Guanyu is even more glad he left Alpine as he watches the team's stand-off with Oscar Piastri from afar.
The 23-year-old was given his Formula 1 debut by Alfa Romeo this season, and has impressed despite suffering a lot of bad luck in terms of car reliability. And he is fairly confident he would not have become China's first ever star in the sport this year had he not taken the decision to quit the Enstone team.
"I’ve been completely released," he told Racer. "Everything worked out very nicely, because my contract was ending at the end of last year and it was up to both of us if we wanted to continue, but then there was an opportunity with Alfa.
"So the deal was definitely not to continue with Alpine, because I didn't see anywhere I could have a seat for next year or for this year. And Alfa and Alpine are quite big competitor brands – not just in Formula 1 but in general.
"It was not easy to get out of Alpine but I'm very happy that everything worked out well because if I had another year I’d be kind of stuck, the same now with Oscar. So it's not the best thing for me. I feel like there was an opportunity here so I went for it, and I think it was a very good decision."
Those words, and Piastri's actions in the last few days, give the impression that development drivers at Alpine feel the opportunities are not there. The Australian looks to have heavily damaged his relationship with the French team in the wake of his public rejection of a guaranteed seat in 2023.
Piastri has been their reserve driver this year despite winning the F2 title. And, until it was announced that Fernando Alonso would be leaving for Aston Martin rather than renewing with Alpine, the team intended to keep the experienced Spaniard and let their younger driver leave on a loan-style deal, most likely to Williams.
But his manager Mark Webber has been negotiating with his old friend Andreas Seidl at McLaren and looks to have landed him a spot. The team will now attempt to negotiate a pay-off with Daniel Ricciardo to terminate his contract a year early to replace him with the younger Aussie.
But the former Red Bull star will likely not be short of offers, as four teams have made contact with him in the last two weeks alone. One of them is believed to be Alpine, who would consider bringing him back into the Enstone setup two years after he left for McLaren in the first place.
