‘That should just never happen’: Christian Horner perplexed by Alpine-Oscar Piastri saga
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Christian Horner (L) Oscar Piastri (R)
On Monday, Alpine and Oscar Piastri appeared before the FIA’s Contract Recognition Board, which will decide the Australian driver’s future. The French team claim that they signed a contract with Piastri last year back in November till 2024, with an option at the end of 2023. There were rumours of a deadline by 31st July of this year to exercise their option with Piastri, which Otmar Szafnauer has denied. A decision is expected by Thursday.
What began at the start of the month seems to be coming to a head now. Fernando Alonso’s decision to leave prompted Alpine to announce Piastri as his replacement, which Szafnauer claims he had discussed with the Australian. Even if he had discussed it, Piastri later came forward to outright say he will not drive for Alpine in 2023, and in the process, he broke the internet.
If he is freed, Piastri, considered one of the best young talents right now, should presumably be going to McLaren, who he was rumoured to be in discussions with. Daniel Ricciardo’s departure has already been announced, and there is an open seat there. Christian Horner, who has a lot of experience of working with young drivers, has admitted that he is rather bewildered by the whole situation.
Christian Horner on Oscar Piastri: “He’s a great talent”
Christian Horner, as reported by GPFans, is rather confused by the current saga surrounding Alpine and Oscar Piastri. Formula 1 teams invest a lot into their juniors, and he believes that a situation like this, where Piastri has somehow turned his back on the team, should never happen.
Horner cited there has to be some loyalty within these junior-team agreements: “Not being close to it, I don’t fully understand it because contractually, that should just never happen. If Renault or Alpine have invested into his junior career, and because you’re investing in youth, you’re investing for the future and there has to be, obviously, an element of loyalty within that.”
He believes that just the fact that the team and Piastri need to appear in front of the CRB shows that something may not be right: “I don’t understand, contractually, what is going on there. But for him to even be in a position to think he doesn’t have to drive for Alpine next year, it obviously shows there is something not right. But hopefully, it will get sorted.”
As for his own personal opinion on Piastri, Horner thinks: “He’s another great talent.” adding that he knows him fairly well, calling him ‘a talent that should be on the grid’ but he believes that there has been a bit of a ‘mess’ around his debut, and anyone is inclined to agree with that.
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Aniket Tripathi
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