Alpine to ‘eliminate the loopholes’ that allowed Oscar Piastri to ‘escape’

Alpine will 'make sure' that future contracts with junior drivers don't end up with them being able to leave due to loopholes - like Oscar Piastri did.

Alpine to ‘eliminate the loopholes’ that allowed Oscar Piastri to ‘escape’

Otmar Szafnauer (L) | Oscar Piastri (R)

In the space of about a month during the summer break, Alpine lost two very valuable assets. The first one was Fernando Alonso, who was not ‘feeling the love’ at the team, to Aston Martin replacing Sebastian Vettel. Alpine announced Oscar Piastri as the replacement for Alonso, but the Australian driver publicly turned down the seat. It was widely reported that he was supposed to be the replacement for Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren. Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine’s team principal, publicly threatened to take the matter to court.

The matter did eventually go to the Contract Recognition Board, but it did not end in Alpine’s favor. Piastri’s McLaren contract, signed on July 4, was deemed the only valid contract in this case. This was clearly a big (double) blow for Alpine. While they did get Pierre Gasly, a proven and well-regarded F1 driver as Alonso’s replacement, the whole affair must have stung. Alpine even fired their legal director.

Szafnauer made many statements in the media during the whole saga, and some afterward as well. There’s another one now. Now, the team will try its best to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Speaking to Total-Motorsport.com, Szafnauer said: “Species that cooperate survive. Species that are selfish become extinct. In the future, we will treasure these lessons and make sure that we eliminate the loopholes that allowed Oscar to get out of the contract we thought we had with him.”

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Read More: Otmar Szafnauer full of praise for ‘very professional’ junior Jack Doohan

Otamr Szafnauer admits Alpine should have ‘done differently’ with Oscar Piastri contract

Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri is considered to be one of the brightest talents in Formula 1. But unfortunately for Alpine, he’ll be taking his skills and services to McLaren – who is currently their midfield rival. This was definitely not ideal, and the ‘wounds’ will take some time to heal. Clearly, when they’d signed the contract – they didn’t think it would end up like this. But now, they know, and realize they should have done things differently.

Otmar Szafnauer said: “What happened in the summer was not what we had planned in December 2021. We can say that we should have done things differently so that the plan to promote Oscar would actually have been realised.”

Currently on their books is another Australian, Jack Doohan, who the Alpine team principal had earlier praised as ‘very professional’ and ‘really really good’. He’ll be focusing on Formula 2 for now, but he may be to keep an eye out for – both for Alpine and other teams. For Alpine, if they believe in him, they must secure his contract, cause clearly, if drivers see a better opportunity somewhere else, they do not hesitate much to move away.

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