PARIS: Australia’s Oscar Piastri will replace two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso at Alpine next season, the team announced Tuesday.
The 21-year-old Piastri was named Alpine’s reserve driver at the start of 2022. He will be promoted after Alonso makes the switch to Aston Martin.
Alpine said the decision was taken “in line with the commitments made by the team” to Piastri.
“Oscar is a bright and rare talent. We are proud to have nurtured and supported him through the difficult pathways of the junior formulae,” Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer said in a statement.
“Through our collaboration over the past four years, we have seen him develop and mature into a driver who is more than capable of taking the step up to Formula 1.”
Melbourne-born Piastri joined the Alpine academy after winning the Formula Renault Eurocup title in 2019. He took the Formula 3 crown the following year before claiming the Formula 2 championship in 2021.
He will team up with French driver Esteban Ocon at the top level next year.
“Together, we believe the duo will give us the continuity we need to achieve our long-term goal of challenging for wins and championships,” said Szafnauer.
Alonso, 41, revealed Monday he would be joining Aston Martin on a multi-year contract from 2023, taking the seat vacated by the imminent retirement of Sebastian Vettel.
The Spaniard, who won his world titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, returned to Formula One last season with Alpine after a two-year hiatus.
Australian Piastri to replace Alonso at Alpine in 2023
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Australian Piastri to replace Alonso at Alpine in 2023
- The 21-year-old Piastri was named Alpine's reserve driver at the start of 2022
- He will be promoted after Alonso makes the switch to Aston Martin
Marmoush, Salah strike as Egypt edge out holders Ivory Coast in quarter-final
- Egypt wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute
- That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance
AGADIR, Morocco: Omar Marmoush netted the opener and Mohamed Salah scored the decisive goal as Egypt ended Ivory Coast’s reign with a narrow 3-2 triumph in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final.
Center back Rami Rabia was the other scorer for the Egyptians, who had little possession at the Grande Stade Agadir but took their chances with clinical precision and held on grimly to book a semifinal meeting with Senegal on Wednesday.
An own goal from Ahmed Fatouh and a late effort by Guela Doue proved insufficient for the Ivory Coast, winners of the tournament on home soil two years ago but now deposed as African champions.
Egypt, who have won a record seven Cup of Nations titles, wasted little time in taking the lead as Marmoush scored in the fourth minute after Hamdi Fathy pinched the ball from Franck Kessie in the midfield, allowing Emam Ashour to thread a pinpoint ball to the sprinting Marmoush. He still needed to shrug off the attentions of defender Odilon Kossounou before slotting home.
But it quickly became clear the Ivorians were going to dominate possession, showing much more physical strength on the ball but without setting up clear chances.
Egypt went 2-0 up in the 32nd minute when Rabia rose above the defenders to head his side further ahead from a corner.
The Ivory Coast, who had 70 percent of possession in the first half, reduced the deficit eight minutes later when teenager Yann Diomande’s freekick near the corner took a slight brush off Kossounou’s head and ricocheted off the knee of full back Fatouh and into the net.
SALAH FINISHED OFF CLEVER MOVE
The Ivorians had come from 2-0 down to beat Gabon 3-2 earlier in the tournament but hopes of turning the scoreline around soon after the re-start were stymied by a simply created, but superbly finished, goal for Salah seven minutes after the break.
Rabia was well inside his own half when he chipped the ball over the top of the Ivorian defensive line, allowing Ashour to run onto it and hit an accurate pass with the outside of his right boot into the path of Salah to score.
An Ivorian comeback was still on when Doue touched home at the end of a goalmouth scramble in the 73rd minute.
That set up a siege of the Egyptian goal in the final 15 minutes but they held out to advance.
Earlier on Saturday, Nigeria overpowered Algeria 2-0 in Marrakech and will take on hosts Morocco in the other semifinal.
