Théo Pourchaire, a third French driver in Formula 1? “For me, I deserve my place”

Because Pourchaire is also and above all a driver of the Sauber academy, Alfa Romeo’s name in F1. Last September, the Italian team formalized the replacement of Kimi Raïkkönen, future retiree, by Valtteri Bottas. But since then, she has still not revealed the identity of the Finn’s teammate. And Antonio Giovinazzi, the current holder, has not really convinced his management.

Chase a competitor who ticks all the boxes

“For me, I deserve my place in F1, Theo Pourchaire told us this Tuesday in the Fous du Volant podcast. But it’s not just performance that matters. There are a lot of parameters. “The Frenchman does not have his destiny in hand. In recent weeks, negotiations have been established between the American Michael Andretti and Alfa Romeo with a view to a takeover of the team. If they had been successful, these negotiations would have considerably obscured the future of the Frenchman, and finally collapsed.

But that’s not all. Two other drivers were seriously applying for promotion at Alfa. Oscar Piastri, leader of the F2 classification, and Guanyu Zhou, his runner-up. The two pilots are members of the Alpine Academy but the French team is ready to let them look elsewhere. Piastri, prodigy pampered by Mark Webber, could be faced with a much more embarrassing situation than others, like Pierre Gasly, have experienced: if he is crowned in F2, the Australian driver will not be authorized, by law, to compete there. a new season. Without a place in F1, he will then have to turn to other promotion formulas, or to a reserve role.

The gifted Melbourne has already made a point. Because the other candidate, Guanyu Zhou, has other strings to his bow. He is still young (22 years old), talented and his father would be ready to pay dearly – we are talking about an eight-figure amount – to promote his son in F1 … who would herself have a lot to gain thanks to the competition of ‘a Chinese pilot. And for a team like Alfa Romeo, in financial difficulty, the contribution is anything but negligible.

What to style Pourchaire to the post. “Piastri had a great season, Zhou too, admitted the French. He has a nice help too… it’s part of F1, it’s like that, it’s a complicated world. But I spoke with the bosses of Alfa Romeo Racing, they offered me something very good so I’m happy. “

Well aware of the talent and potential of the young man, Alfa Romeo could offer a real development program for Le Grasse, as Frédéric Vasseur, boss of the team, implied on Canal + Sport Monday. “I want at all costs that Theo have all the weapons in hand to arrive in F1, he explained during a live broadcast on Twitch. We are currently thinking about giving him a solid test program in F1 to prepare him well.. “

Vasseur, who played a major role in the emergence of many great drivers, including Lewis Hamilton, therefore prefers to play the card of patience. The goal? Give Pourchaire a real chance to perform, and not just to appear. “With Frédéric Vasseur, we totally agreed on this, he confessed. He doesn’t want to take me to F1 so that I do two seasons and be an average driver. He absolutely wants us to build a story together. My dream is to be world champion. It might never happen but I want to have the potential to make it happen. “