The pressure to find a Formula One drive for emerging Australian talent Oscar Piastri will peak in July.
The 21-year-old Piastri is a reserve driver for Alpine at the Australian grand prix in Melbourne this weekend.
He is certain to be in the reckoning for any vacant F1 seat as soon as next season.
But Alpine's team principal Otmar Szafnauer says deciding Piastri's F1 future isn't pressing - yet.
"No, not as we sit here in April, I think the pressure in the silly season will be upon us in July," Szafnauer told reporters on Saturday.
While the F1 season doesn't finish until November, teams traditionally begin negotiations with drivers in July-August.
Alpine's current drivers are Spanish veteran Fernando Alonso and 25-year-old Frenchman Esteban Ocon.
Alonso - aged 40, the oldest driver on the F1 circuit this season - has said he wants to continue racing for at least two more years.
Both Alonso and Ocon have sung the praises of Piastri, who won last year's Formula Two championship after taking the Formula Three title in 2020 and the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019.
And team boss Szafnauer has been similarly impressed with the Melbourne-born Piastri.
"Oscar is a wonderful young man," Szafnauer said.
"He's very well prepared, he's really, really hungry - one of the most confident young men coming through.
"And we are working hard with him. If there's a possibility to stick him in a Formula One car, we have given him that opportunity ... (he's) an upcoming talent to watch."
