The silly season in F1 is something that fans always look forward to, and 2023 is no exception to this. In fact there are still quite a few seats up for grabs, with some very interesting rumours circulating the Formula 1 paddock.
First up is the CONFIRMED team lineups for 2023.
ORACLE RED BULL RACING
Red Bull Racing had confirmed Sergio Perez earlier this year to be joining reigning World Champion Max Verstappen at their team for 2023. This doesn’t come as a massive surprise because on the whole Sergio has performed as the team expected him to, bringing in a very respectable points haul to help the team in leading the constructors championship. Not to mention the fact that Checco and Max have a great relationship. We can see this partnership lasting a little longer, even after 2023.
SCUDERIA FERRARI
Another team remaining unchanged is the prancing horse team up of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Both with multi year contracts it was never really up for debate that the team would be changing their line up for 2023.
MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 TEAM
The Mercedes team announced George Russell was joining the team on a multi year contract after the summer break in the season of 2021. He was due to join the 7 time champion Lewis Hamilton; Lewis has negotiated a multi year deal with the team and is very much holding his cards against his chest as to how long he will be staying in the sport. In a recent interview, he mentioned
“I don’t plan on stopping any time soon.”
Lewis Hamilton on his retirement plans
There is also a rumour around the paddock that the Mercedes team have been in talks with Daniel Ricciardo for a reserve driver position. However, we at EverythingF1 believe Danny will have an actual seat elsewhere on the grid.
ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO COGNIZANT F1 TEAM
The team that kick started the silly season shakeup this year was Aston Martin. More specifically it was Sebastian Vettel with his retirement announcement, leaving a vacant seat in the British Racing Green team. This seat was quickly filled with 2 time World Champion Fernando Alonso, who will be partnering Lance Stroll in a multi year contract for the team.
Alonso was convinced to head to the team thanks to their commitment of a 2 year contract, something Alpine weren’t willing to offer.
MCLAREN
The papaya team got caught up in the silly season shenanigans, due to the young Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri. They signed him up shortly after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone but hadn’t made the news public. However when Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso announced a 2 year deal, Alpine released a statement that their young driver Oscar Piastri would be joining the team full time alongside Esteban Ocon for 2023 onwards.
What happened next was messy and took weeks to sort out…
Both Mclaren and Alpine’s contracts had to go to the FIA contract review board. Eventually ruling in McLaren’s favour, announcing that the contract between Mr Piastri and Mclaren, was the only legitimate and valid contract.
The Australian joins British McLaren driver Lando Norris for the 2023 season.
Now we talk UNCONFIRMED teams and driver line ups for 2023.
ALFA ROMEO RACING ORLEN
We’re expecting Zhou Guanyu to be confirmed at Alfa Romeo F1 Team soon. Although nothing official has been announced, it is thought that he has done enough to justify offering him another year at the team for 2023. Zhou will be once again driving alongside Valtteri Bottas, who was signed in 2021 on a multi year deal with the team. Something he had been wanting for a number of years while with Mercedes.
HAAS F1 TEAM
The American F1 team HAAS are keeping Kevin Magnussen as one of their drivers. When they signed him last minute esrlier this year after the “Mazepin Situation” he was promised a multiyear deal with the team and in fairness to him, has done a pretty decent job after a year away from the sport. The question mark hangs over the second seat.
Mick Schumacher has not performed at the level the team was expecting and there have been a lot of suspicions around replacing him. The young German driver has also lost his place in the Ferrari academy.
The current rumour places Antonio Giovinazzi in the seat, but murmers of Daniel Ricciardo being a potential replacement have been mentioned.
WILLIAMS RACING
Alex Albon has been a really consistent replacement for George Russell in the Williams team. Alex has appeared regularly in Q2 and managed to squeeze through into Q3 in Belgium. His seat is an absolute no brainer for Dorilton Capital.
Nicholas Latifi however has sadly run out of luck and talent. He gave it a go, but it just didn’t work for him. Williams havent confirmed him in their second seat because in all likeliness they will be replacing him.
They have an American in the wings in F2’s Logan Sargeant(a member of their own drivers academy). They also have potential access to the Mercedes young driver pool including Nyck de Vries. We even speculated on one of our recent podcasts that Williams could be a potential project for Daniel Ricciardo, however nothing official or even unofficial has been heard on that front.
SCUDERIA ALPHA TAURI
Pierre Gasly has been confirmed in the seat for Alpha Tauri however since being confirmed there have been rumours of a potential team swap, moving him over to the Alpine team. Franz Tost admitting that he would be willing to let him go if he wanted to leave.
Yuki Tsunoda’s seat is also in question after another difficult season with the team. He has had some sparks of talent. But has it been enough to keep him in the driving seat?
Helmet Marko has been attempting to get American Indycar driver Colton Herta into the team. He currently doesn’t have enough superlicense points, so the team have asked for a special dispensation to allow him to drive.
We can’t forget the long line of Red Bull Juniors all waiting in the queue. Ayumi Iwasa, Liam Lawson, Dennis Hauger and Jehan Daruvala all very capable and all eager to make the jump into Formula 1.
ALPINE F1 TEAM
Alpine. Wow, what can we say about Alpine? Well… they have Esteban Ocon, who is performing well this year, competing closely with his Spanish teammate and helping the team gain a substantial points haul so far this year.
That second seat however is where all the trouble begins. They lost Fernando due to their inability to commit to a multi year deal. They also lost Oscar Piastri due to their desire to keep Fernando Alonso for another year.
After losing the contract ruling, they now have a difficult decision to make. Do they bring back Daniel Ricciardo or continue with their attempt to get Pierre Gasly from Alpha Tauri.
Daniel Ricciardo has previously driven for the team in Renault form, but much to the confusion of the French outfit, he chose to leave the team at the end of the 2020 season; announcing this before they’d even turned a wheel that year. Whether the team can overlook that remains to be seen.
Pierre Gasly signing a contract would create an all French line up, which would be a very tempting offer for the French manufacturer.
Thats it! All teams covered.
Who do you think should take the vacant seats? Do you agree with our predictions?