THE DRIVER MATTERS, BUT THE CAR MATTERS MORE

The departure of Fernando Alonso and the signing of Oscar Piastri with McLaren has left a empty seat at Alpine F1.

The French team assures that it is not in a hurry to choose its second driver, because it believes that it is not of great importance for their development.

In fact, for some of the candidates they prepared a test session to evaluate their racing capabilities on the Hungaroring track.

Laurent Rossi, CEO of Alpine: "We will take more time, we don't want to make a mistake. There is no rush. We currently have the best offer in the paddock at the moment."

"We are the 4th team on the grid, so people are waiting for us before making a decision. We have selected 14 drivers, as Otmar announced earlier. Now we have six left. Some are not yet completely free to make a change, and others may not suit our picture of the future."

Regarding Piastre's departure, Rossi claims the team's biggest disappointment is a lack of loyalty, but he knows drama is part of Formula 1.

"We knew it was going to be a kind of soap opera. We knew there was going to be drama and we're ready for the next time, our skin is getting thicker, but the project goes on..."

"We are progressing and moving in the right direction. The driver is important, but the car is the most important. The gap to Mercedes AMG is half a second, and the gap to Ferrari is one second. No driver's performance can make up half or a whole second."