The saga surrounding Oscar Piastri’s departure from Alpine to McLaren in 2023 continues to resonate within the F1 community, and former Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has not held back in his recent comments. Szafnauer, who joined Alpine in 2022 but left the team in July 2023 amid its slump in performance, has now blamed “untrustworthy” individuals within Alpine for mishandling Piastri’s contract situation, which ultimately led to the Australian’s switch to McLaren.
Szafnauer’s tenure saw major upheavals, including Fernando Alonso’s announcement in mid-2022 that he would be joining Aston Martin. Alpine quickly announced that Piastri, then a reserve driver, would fill Alonso’s seat. However, in a dramatic twist, Piastri signed with McLaren instead, leaving Alpine to lose both a two-time champion and their promising talent.
On the High Performance Podcast, Szafnauer opened up about the chaotic period, revealing his lack of involvement in the dispute. He clarified that although there was an option in Piastri’s contract after his F2 career to secure his services as an Alpine driver, the team failed to act during the specified window in November. “There was a two-week time window where it could have been done, and it wasn’t,” Szafnauer stated, pointing to the mishandling by Alpine’s management.
Alpine’s appeal to the Contract Recognition Board (CRB) ultimately failed, as the filings were found to be mishandled, leading to Piastri’s move to McLaren. Szafnauer, whose image was used in Alpine’s official press release following the ruling, emphasized that he had no role in the dispute or the CRB proceedings. “So number one, nothing to do with me. I wasn’t even there,” he stressed. He also criticized Alpine’s communications team, which didn’t report to him, for using his image as a way to shift blame away from those responsible.
Szafnauer recounted how he confronted a colleague involved in crafting the press release, someone he had worked with during his time at Force India. The individual admitted to Szafnauer that he was instructed to include his image, further fueling Szafnauer’s belief that certain people within Alpine were working against him. “There were some people within the Alpine organisation that were untrustworthy and that were out to get me, so they weren’t working with me,” he said.
Despite the mishandling, Szafnauer insisted that Alpine had fulfilled its obligations to Piastri by providing him with 5,000 kilometers of testing in a two-year-old car, an effort that involved significant resources. He argued that even though the contract was not signed, the team had delivered on their promises, stating, “In English law, had we taken it to an English court, maybe we would have won. You know, that’s unjust enrichment.”
Piastri’s move to McLaren has since paid off handsomely. The Australian driver has secured two race wins this season at the Hungarian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix and currently sits fourth in the Drivers’ Championship. McLaren’s resurgence has them positioned as a leading team, while Alpine has fallen to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, with six rounds remaining in the season.
The fallout from the Piastri affair continues to highlight internal issues at Alpine, revealing a lack of cohesion and trust that has contributed to their recent struggles. Meanwhile, McLaren and Piastri’s fortunes indicate that the young driver made the right call, leaving Alpine to face the consequences of their internal mismanagement.
