It's almost been 4 years since The Tweetā¢. I've been clearing out my notes recently and came across a note where i tried to piece together the whole timeline.
here's the timeline i ended up with:
late '21 - Alpine signs Oscar as reserve driver for '22 after he won the F2 championship.
October/November '21 - Oscars signs a Heads of Terms (HoT) agreement with Alpine (not really a contract, it's more so that it's clear for both parties what to expect from each other. conditions and deadlines with as goal to eventually promote Oscar to a full time D1 seat).
early '22 - Alpine has the Williams plan, negotiations happen but nothing is finalized.
first half '22 - Oscars management (Mark Webber and Ann Neal) are concerned since Alpine hasn't confirmed the F1 seat.
13/06/'22 - rumors starts that Oscar has signed with Williams (on loan from Alpine and that he'll eventually drive for Alpine)
04/07/'22 - in secret, Oscar signs a contract with McLaren
early 07/'22 - Mark Webber (Oscars manager) informs Alpine that Oscar has signed with McLaren. so Alpine knows weeks before anything happens publicly.
28/07/'22 - Sebastian Vettel announces his retirement, opening up a seat at Aston Martin. "Seb has Instagram?!"
01/08/'22 - Fernando Alonzo announces he'll be leaving Alpine for Aston Martin (he was not exactly happy at Alpine)
02/08/'22 (2:11 PM BST) - literally next day Alpine announces Oscar as their '23 driver
02/08/'22 (3:54 PM BST) - exactly 1 hour and 43 minutes later posts The Tweetā¢.
09/08/'22 - Alpine announces it'll take this to the FIA's Contract Recognition Board (CRB)
24/08/'22 - McLaren and Daniel Riccardo agree to part ways at the end of the '22 season
29/08/'22 - the CRB unanimously rules that Oscars only valid F1 contract for the '23 season is with McLaren
02/09/'22 - McLaren officially announces Oscar as their driver
29/09/'22 - Oscar says in a interview that Alpine had broken his trust probably because of the uncertainty around the '23 in early '22
this all is so crazy but i think that this year if Max Verstappen decides to sign with Mercedes that silly season will be 10 times crazier.